GIFT  OF 


8061  '12  W  'itfd 


TEN  YEARS 
PROGRESS  IN 
RELIGIOUS 
EDUCATION 

HENRY  F.  COPE,  D.  D. 


•General  Secretary 


The  Religious  Education  Association 


THE   PB  OT«CB 

TO  THE  TJNIVEBSITY  LIBRAE^ 


The  Religious  Education  Association 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 

1913 


TEN  YEARS'  PROGRESS 


IN 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 


HENRY  F.  COPE,  D.  D. 

H 

General  Secretary,  The  Religious  Education  Association 


Copyright 

'The  Religious  Education  Association 
19*3 


TEN  YEARS'  PROGRESS  IN  RELIGIOUS 
EDUCATION* 

HENRY  F.  COPE,  D.  D., 
General  Secretary,  The  Religions  Education  Association. 

The  problem  of  religious  education,  once  realized  only  by 
a  small  group  of  educators,  has  become  a  part  of  our  national 
consciousness.  That  single  fact  is  the  most  important  evidence 
of  progress  in  the  ten  years  since  the  Religious  Education 
Association  was  organized. 

1903  to  1913  has  been  a  decade  of  the  awakening  of  public 
opinion.  The  phrase  "religious  education"  has  come  into  gen- 
eral circulation.  No  longer  of  vague  and  uncertain  meaning  it 
stands  today  for  a  program  of  action  in  schools  and  churches, 
a  characterization  of  an  ideal  type  and  a  realizable  quality  of 
education  and  a  method  by  which  we  hope  to  solve  our  most 
serious  problems  and  realize  our  highest  social  hopes. 

All  permanent  progress  depends,  ultimately,  on  public 
opinion,  but  public  opinion  is  determined  by  individual  con- 
viction, isolated  experiments,  personal  leadership  and  con- 
certed, organized  propaganda  spreading  from  one  group 
through  many  groups  and  working,  in  time,  through  many  in- 
stitutions and  organizations.  This  has  been  the  natural  mode 
of  progress  under  which  there  has  developed,  during  the  past 
ten  years,  a  wide-spread  conviction  of  the  need  for  moral  and 
religious  education.  A  general  conviction  cannot  readily  be 
reduced  to  exact  instances  but  it  can  be  traced  through  the 
examples  of  leadership,  through  published  expressions  of  con- 
victions and  of  changing  view  points,  through  records  of  insti- 
tutions, of  experiments  and  successes,  and  through  the  activi- 
ties of  special  organizations.  These  are  the  signs  and  evidences 
we  expect  to  trace  in  reviewing  progress  during  the  past  de- 
cade. 

NEW  MEANINGS. 

First,  a  most  significant  change  in  the  generally  accepted 
meaning  of  the  phrase  "religions  education." 

*For  several  years  the  annual  surveys  presented  at  the  conventions  of  the  Re- 
ligious Education  Association  have  been  studies  of  special  detached  fields  of  religious 
education.  It  seems  appropriate  this  year  to  attempt  a  review  of  the  whole  field  in  this 
country,  for  we  stand  at  the  end  of  ten  years'  work  in  the  Religious  Education  Asso- 
ciation. 

We  believe  this  decade  of  service  has  not  been  in  vain;  but  we  do  not  for  a 
moment  assert  that  all  the  splendid  progress  of  these  ten  years  is  to  be  credited  to  the 
Religious  Education  Association, 


267675 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


It  will  scarcely  be  disputed  that,  ten  years  ago,  this  phrase 
signified,  except  to  a  few  thoughtful  leaders,  formal  instruc- 
tion in  the  categories  of  religious  knowledge.  It  meant  system- 
atic impartation  of  information  regarding  the  Bible,  religious 
history  and  doctrine.  Its  range  of  ordinary  activity  was  con- 
fined to  churches,  Sunday  schools  and  other  distinctly  religious 
institutions.  It  was  not  education,  but  instruction;  it  was  not 
necessarily  "religious,"  although  it  dealt  with  the  history,  liter- 
ature and  philosophy  of  religion.  It  was  concerned  principally 
with  methods  of  arranging  information  into  suitable  packages 
for  storage  in  youthful  minds. 

Today  "religious  education"  concerns  itself  primarily  with 
life,  individual  and  social;  it  is  a  program  of  life  devel- 
opment that  is  religious  in  aim,  in  method  and  in  its  conception 
of  the  person  being  educated.  It  signifies  the  development  of 
persons  into  the  fulness  of  a  religiously  conceived  social  ideal. 

This  involves  such  a  sweeping  inclusion  of  the  dominant 
interests  and  supreme  values  in  life  as  to  place  religious  educa- 
tion in  a  foremost  place  in  the  interests  of  all  who  think  in 
terms  of  this  age. 

Second,  The  aim  itself  is  higher. 

Along  with  the  broadening  of  the  scope  of  religious  educa- 
tion there  has  been  an  elevation  of  the  aim.  The  ideal  of 
character  has  been  elevated.  Goodness  no  longer  means  nega- 
tive living,  pleasant,  good-humored  neighborliness  but  develop- 
ing efficiency,  positive  social  competency. 

The  aim  of  religious  education  is  humanity  trained  and 
adequately  motived  to  do  and  know  and  love  the  highest  good 
of  all,  to  realize  the  eternal  values  In  a  divine  social  unity  and 
a  creative  spiritual  generation,  finding  life  in  giving  larger  life 

Third,  scientific  fidelity  to  truth  adds  new  reverence  to  this 
aim.  Lives  must  be  developed  according  to  life's  law.  The 
educational  emphasis  simply  means  the  growth  of  persons  ac- 
cording to  law.  We  have  had  a  decade  of  widespread,  patient, 
skilled  investigation  into  the  phenomena  of  the  growth  of  per- 
sonality. The  psychology  of  religion  has  become  a  department 
of  science  and  an  entirely  new  field  of  literature  has  been 
created.1 

iNotably  the  work  of  William  James,  E.  D.  Starbuck,  G.  S.  Hall,  Geo.  A.  Coe, 
Josiah  Royce,  J.  Borden  Browne,  Geo.  Galloway,  E.  O.  Sisson,  Geo.  W.  Dawson. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS. 


A   NEW   CRUSADK. 

Fourth,  The  emergence  of  the  group  consciousness  of  a 
new  spirit,  that  of  enthusiastic,  sacrificing  devotion  to  religious 
education  as  a  cause.  Men  and  women  of  all  walks  of  life  have 
gladly  and  unreservedly  given  of  lime  and  treasure  and  toil 
as  though  for  a  new,  compelling  crusade.  The  widening  of  the 
horizon,  as  men  rose  to  higher  interpretations,  effected  the 
transition  from  cold,  speculative  inquiry  to  the  passion  of  a 
great,  sustaining  hope.  The  vision  of  a  divine,  realizable,  social 
ideal  gave  an  inner  impulse,  an  enthusiasm  that  fired  and 
fused  men  at  an  elevation  above  the  motives  that  divide.  The 
hope  of  the  speedy  realization  of  higher  race  ideals  through 
religious  education  became  a  new  bond  of  unity.  It  brought 
to  a  common  service  those  who  sincerely  differed  in  creed, 
philosophy,  habits  of  religious  mechanism  and  in  social  ex- 
perience. It  has  afforded  an  opportunity  for  the  expression 
of  the  idealism  of  those  whose  official  activities  in  education 
excluded  the  religious  element.  Forgetting  the  things  behind 
and  beneath,  men  of  varied  creeds  and  station  rejoiced  to 
spend  themselves  that  their  fellows,  and  still  more  the  chil- 
dren of  today  might  have  the  larger  heritage  of  life  in  terms  of 
religion,  and  religion  in  terms  of  life.  The  passion  for  religious 
education  has  been  born  of  the  fusion  of  the  scientific  spirit 
with  the  spirit  of  humanistic  idealism.  Here  men  may,  and 
indeed  must  maintain  loyalty  to  and  integrity  in  scientific 
methods  and  still  feel  the  force  of  a  truly  religious  hope,  follow 
a  soul-satisfying  ideal  and  find  a  cause  to  which  they  can  ren- 
der satisfying  service.  That  is  the  most  significant  progressive 
step  of  the  decade.  The  history  of  the  R.  E.  A.  is  that  of  a 
new  devotion  to  a  great  cause;  it  includes  the  record  of  sus- 
tained, unstinted  sacrifice  and  service.  It  has  cost  blood  and 
lives  gladly  given.  It  reveals  in  this  dull  age  a  passion  that 
wipes  out  personal  aims,  professional  jealousies  and  tradi- 
tional divergencies  and  on  a  mount  of  vision  has  made  men 
of  one  mind,  no  man  regarding  whether  he  fell  or  rose  so  long 
as  light  grew  larger  to  all.  If  ever  the  history  of  the  R.  E.  A. 
be  written  adequately  it  will  tell,  not  alone  of  organizations, 
conferences,  methods  and  materials,  but  of  a  new  spirit  and  a 
truly  holy  crusade.2 

2As  a  concrete  evidence  the  treasurer's  accounts  show  that  approximately  $120  000 
has  been  raised  and  expended  by  the  R.  E.  A.  The  larger  part  of  this  stands  for  gifts 
to  a  cause.  But  twice  this  sum  would  be  insufficient  to  represent  the  actual  investment 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


Fifth,  Practical  improvements  in  the  methods  of  religious 
education  have  taken  place  in  specific  fields. 

I.      THE   SUNDAY   SCHOOL. 

In  no  other  institution  has  progress  been  as  marked  as  in 
the  Sunday  school.  Ten  years  ago  no  other  stood  so  sadly  in 
need  of  improvement.  Then  we  were  in  a  ferment  of  dissatis- 
faction which  had  been  brewing  for  a  long  time.  But  chaotic 
criticism  has  given  place  to  a  program  of  reconstruction.  One 
of  the  first  formulations  of  an  educational  conception  of  the 
school's  work  was  in  the  lectures  entitled  "Principles  of  Relig- 
ious Education."3  Then  followed  experimentation  by  many  in- 
dividual churches,  jiotably  that  under  the  direction  of  William 
R.  Harper,  in  the  Hyde  Park  Baptist  Sunday  school.4  The  first 
convention  of  the  R.  E.  A.  laid  down  fundamental  educational 
principles  and  challenged  attention  to  two  great  possibilities 
of  improvement,  trained  teachers  and  graded  curricula.* 

There  was  steady  insistence  on  the  need  of  the  preparation 
of  teachers  in  educational  science,  in  pedagogy  and  psychology 
instead  of  the  then  customary  childish  memory  drills.  The 
term  "Teacher-training"  was  officially  adopted  by  the  Inter- 
national Sunday  School  Association  in  1896.  Soon  after  the 
first  R.  E.  A.  Convention  a  "Department  of  Education"  was 
organized  by  the  International  Association,6  and  under  its 
auspices  many  classes  were  formed;  the  state  organizations 
appointed  special  secretaries,  and  the  City  Association  of  Chi- 
cago engaged  one  in  1904.  At  first  the  emphasis  was  on  the 
enrollment  of  large  numbers,  while  the  courses  often  remained 
beneath  the  mental  dignity  of  persons  capable  of  teaching. 
But  in  time  the  criticism  by  the  derided  "academic  idealists" 
made  itself  felt  and  the  imperative  necessity  of  preparation 
in  at  least  the  elements  of  psychology  was  recognized;  "child 
study"  became  one  of  the  four  subjects  required  in  the  ele- 
mentary courses  for  teachers,  although  no  standard  was  fixed 

made  in  this  work  by  those  who  have  given  their  time,  strength  and  means  both  to  its 
promotion  through  this  organization — by  writing,  speaking,  directing  work,  organizing, 
travel,  etc. — and  to  the  cause  through  many  other  agencies  and  in  many  other  ways. 

In  ten  years  nearly  1,000  persons  have  read  papers  at  the  general  conventions  of 
the  R.  E.  A.  and  fully  an  equal  number  at  local  conferences,  yet  in  no  instance  has  any 
person  received  even  his  own  traveling  expenses,  still  less  any  other  money  compensa- 
tion for  such  services  to  the  organization. 

3"Principles  of  Education,"  Butler  et  al,  Longmans,  1899. 

^Outlines  in  "Principles  and  Ideals  in  the  Sunday  School,"  Burton  and  Mathews, 
U.  of  C.  Press. 

5Addresses  of  Mathews,  Sanders,  Harrower,  Pease  in  "Improvement  of  Religious 
Education,"  R.  E.  A.,  1903. 

6By  Executive  Committee.  Winona,  August,  1904. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS. 


by  the  International  Association  until  1908.7  An  advanced 
course  was  adopted  at  this  time.  In  January,  1913,  there  were 
enrolled  by  the  Education  Department  of  the  International 
Association  3,247  classes  with  36,247  students  and  also  110  in- 
dividual students.  The  different  denominations  early  or- 
ganized departments  of  Teacher  Training  and  vigorously  pros- 
ecuted this  work,  issuing  special  courses  of  lessons  and  text 
books  and  enrolling  large  numbers  of  students. 

There  has  been  a  steady  improvement  in  the  character  of 
the  courses,  which  may  be  traced  in  the  outlines  published  by 
this  Association  and  manifest  in  the  last  report  of  the  Teacher 
Training  Commission  of  the  R.  E.  A.8  In  recent  years  there 
has  been  a  marked  tendency  to  emphasize  the  training  of 
teachers  in  the  schools  by  special  classes  for  senior  students; 
teachers  have  also  received  courses  fitting  for  special  work; 
Teacher-training  libraries  have  been  established  in  local 
churches,  lecture  courses  and  reading  courses  established  and, 
in  rare  instances,  provision  made  for  this  work  in  church 
budgets. 

Nothing  better  illustrates  development  in  this  crucial  mat- 
ter of  preparing  the  Sunday-school  teacher  than  the  growth  of 
text-books.  It  is  true  that  a  few  churches  continue  to  endorse 
the  primitive  manuals,  but  the  greater  number  are  relying  on 
scholarly  men  of  recognized  educational  standing  for  the  prep- 
aration of  special  texts.9  Further  progress  may  be  traced  (a) 
in  the  growing  custom  of  paying  teachers  a  small  salary;  (b) 
the  provision  of  special  libraries  for  them;  (c)  the  institution 
of  practice  work  and  (d)  in  the  growth  of  special  institutes  for 
study.  Not  only  have  the  latter  developed  in  connection  with 
summer  schools,  but  they  have  been  organized  as  parts  of  the 
extension  work  of  colleges  and  universities.  For  example,  the 
University  of  South  Carolina  affords  the  facilities  and  instruc- 
tors for  a  teachers'  course  for  lay  workers,  the  University  of 
West  Virginia  holds  a  Summer  School  of  Religious  Education 
for  Sunday-school  workers.  Especially  noteworthy  also,  is 

'Philadelphia  Conference,  Jan.  7,  8,  1908 — Elementary  course  of  50  lessons,  2 
years,  20  lessons  in  Bible,  7  on  pupil,  7  on  teacher,  7  on  schools.  See  "Evolution  of  the 
Sunday  School,"  page  161  f. 

^Special  report  presented  at  St.  Louis  Convention  1912,  in  pamphlet  form,  the 
R.  E.  A.  office,  Chicago. 

<JFor  the  work  of  a  modern  class  see  outline  course  in  First  Presbyterian,  Buffalo, 
in  "Religious  Education,"  Vol.  VII.,  p.  12(5.  See  list  in  "Graded  Text  Book"  pamphlet 
(R.  E.  A.)  and,  as  examples  of  later  books  note  "Pupil  and  Teacher,"  Weigle  (Doran, 
50c)  ;  "Guide  to  Teachers  of  Training  Classes,"  Slattery  (Pilgrim  Press,  50c)  :  "Method 
of  Religious  Education,"  M.  F.  Field  (Headley,  London,  1/ti). 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


the  recent  organization  of  city  institutes  of  religious  educati 
in  which  careful  work  is  done  under  expert  supervision.  T 
Des  Moines  Institute  meets  weekly  and,  following  a  gene] 
lecture,  the  students  divide  into  thirteen  classes  following  d 
ferent  courses.10  Other  notable  institutes  are  at  Buffalo,  N. 
and  at  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

A  further  highly  important  development  in  teacher  tra 
ing  is  seen  in  the  new  courses  in  colleges  designed  to  trt 
young  people  for  church  work  in  religious  education.  In  F( 
ruary,  1908,  the  R.  E.  A.  prepared  a  memorial  which  was  la 
sent  to  all  American  colleges  and  to  deans  of  departments 
education  urging  the  institution  of  courses  in  the  principles  a 
methods  of  religious  education.11  The  colleges  responded  rei 
ily.12  In  January  of  this  year  there  were  forty-eight  colle* 
offering  regular  work  in  subjects  preparatory  to  Sunday-sclw 
teaching  and  a  number  had  established  special  courses  or  pi 
vided  courses  of  lectures,  while  yet  others  were  holding  ins 
tutes  designed  especially  for  Sunday-school  workers. 

The  investigators  of  a  commission  of  the  Student  Y.  M. 
A.,  reporting  at  the  Cleveland  Convention  of  the  R.  E. 
showed  in  colleges  and  normal  schools:  Required  Courses 
Religious  Education  in  45  colleges,  78  courses.    Elective  Cour; 
in  Religious  Education  in  80  colleges,  221  courses. 

The  activities  of  teacher-training  have  been  paralleled 
marked  progress  in  the  organization  of  the  Sunday  school 
an  educational  institution.  At  first  the  difference  in  natu 
needs  and  general  development  between  children  and  adu 
seems  to  have  been  unrecognized  save  by  a  very  few  isolat 
experimenters.  Gradation  meant,  prior  to  1900,  the  division 
the  school  into,  at  most,  four  departments,  with  not  more  th 
two  sets  of  lessons.  E.  Morris  Ferguson,  in  a  study  of  con 
tions  in  the  state  of  New  Jersey,  reported  at  the  1904  convc 
tion,  that  only  8.3%  of  the  schools  attempted  gradation 
organization  above  the  primary  and  2.5%  above  the  Junioi 
That  condition  then  was  better  probably  in  New  Jers 
than  in  the  United  States  as  a  whole.  Today,  in  New  Jers 
over  25%  are  graded  throughout,  both  in  organization  a 
in  lessons  and  the  2.5%  has  become  80%.  For  the  wh< 


i«See  "Religious  Education,"  Vol.  VII,  50(5-569. 

"Religious  Education,"  Vol.  Ill,  49  and  55-62. 

Survey  by  Cope  in  Reports  of  World  S.  S.  Convention,  1910   (Inter.  S 
Ass'n.)  and  also  pp.  168-172  in  "Evolution  of  the  S.  S."  (Pilgrim  Press,  1911.) 
""The  Bible  in  Practical  Life,"  p.  214. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  9 

country  it  would  be  safe  to  estimate  that  today  at  least  60%  of 
the  schools  are  graded  to  the  extent  then  found  in  his  2.5% 
and  40%  attempt  gradation  up  to  the  age  of  eighteen  for  all 
pupils. 

The  first  convention  of  the  R.  E.  A.  called  attention  to  the 
twin  defects,  lack  of  purposeful  organization  and  of  a  designed 
curriculum.14  Late  in  the  year  1903  a  scheme  of  gradation  was 
published  in  Haslett's  "Pedagogical  Bible  School."  This  was 
based  on  the  work  which  the  late  Professor  Pease  had  already 
done  on  the  curriculum  of  the  school,  work  which  he  elabor- 
ated and  advocated  in  his  "Outline  of  a  Bible-school  Curricu- 
lum."15 Thus  fortunately  the  first  serious  essays  in  the  grada- 
tion of  pupils  grew  logically  out  of  the  attempt  to  provide 
selected,  graded  studies,  adapted  to  the  pupil's  stage  of  devel- 
opment. 

Gradation  in  organization  is  without  significance  save  in 
view  of  the  general  adoption  of  graded  studies  selected  on  the 
scientific  basis.  At  the  beginning  of  this  decade  practically 
all  schools  were  using  a  single  lesson,  with  the  following  excep- 
tions :  Unitarian,  Episcopal,  Friends,  Hebrew,  Roman  Catholic 
and  those  using  the  Blakeslee  series.  In  many  of  these  schools 
the  uniform  lesson  ran  through  several  strata  of  the  schools 
and  even  the  special  lessons  were  graded  and  selected  on  an 
intellectual  basis  rather  than  on  that  of  the  student's  psycho- 
logical development.  Outside  these  a  few  special  texts  had 
been  prepared,  such  as  "The  Beginners  Two  Years"  and  some 
texts  for  adults.  Then  came  the  careful  work  of  Professor 
Pease  and  the  courses  actually  put  into  use  under  the  superin- 
tendency  of  President  Harper.  These  two  attempts  laid  the 
foundations  of  "The  Constructive  Series,"  now  approximately 
complete  after  ten  years'  work.16  Meanwhile  individuals  pre- 
pared parts  of  courses,17  and  the  principles  of  gradation  were 
advocated  and  illustrated  in  outlines  of  courses  at  the  differ- 
ent conventions  of  this  Association.  Schools  in  different  places 
prepared  special  courses  and  published  text  books.18  At  the 

""Improvements  of  Religious  Education"  (1903)  —  Blackall,  p.  175;  Mathews  p.186. 

isGeorge  \V.  Pease  "Outline  of  a  Bible  School  Curriculum,"  U.  of  C.  Press,  1904. 

^"Constructive  Bible  Studies,"  L'niversity  of  Chicago  Press. 

i?Notable  studies  were  prepared  by  Committee  of  the  Illinios  Congregational 
Association  on  "A  Course  of  Study  for  Graded  Sunday  Schools,"  appointed  in  1901, 
which  issued  valuable  annual  reports. 

New, 


'sTo  mention  but  a  few:  Second  Congregational,  O:»k  Park,  111.;  St.  Agnes,  ««,*. 
York;  University  Congregational,  Chicago;  Church  of  the  Disciples,  Boston;  Teachers' 
College  School,  New  York;  St.  John's,  Providence.  (For  the  outline  of  these  and 
others  see  "Religious  Education,"  Vol.  II,  December,  1907.) 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


the  recent  organization  of  city  institutes  of  religious  education 
in  which  careful  work  is  done  under  expert  supervision.  The 
Des  Moines  Institute  meets  weekly  and,  following  a  general 
lecture,  the  students  divide  into  thirteen  classes  following  dif- 
ferent courses.10  Other  notable  institutes  are  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
and  at  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

A  further  highly  important  development  in  teacher  train- 
ing is  seen  in  the  new  courses  in  colleges  designed  to  train 
young  people  for  church  work  in  religious  education.  In  Feb- 
ruary, 1908,  the  R.  E.  A.  prepared  a  memorial  which  was  later 
sent  to  all  American  colleges  and  to  deans  of  departments  of 
education  urging  the  institution  of  courses  in  the  principles  and 
methods  of  religious  education.11  The  colleges  responded  read- 
ily.12 In  January  of  this  year  there  were  forty-eight  colleges 
offering  regular  work  in  subjects  preparatory  to  Sunday-school 
teaching  and  a  number  had  established  special  courses  or  pro- 
vided courses  of  lectures,  while  yet  others  were  holding  insti- 
tutes designed  especially  for  Sunday-school  workers. 

The  investigators  of  a  commission  of  the  Student  Y.  M.  C. 
A.,  reporting  at  the  Cleveland  Convention  of  the  R.  E.  A., 
showed  in  colleges  and  normal  schools:  Required  Courses  in 
Religious  Education  in  45  colleges,  78  courses.  Elective  Courses 
in  Religious  Education  in  80  colleges,  221  courses. 

The  activities  of  teacher-training  have  been  paralleled  by 
marked  progress  in  the  organization  of  the  Sunday  school  as 
an  educational  institution.  At  first  the  difference  in  nature, 
needs  and  general  development  between  children  and  adults 
seems  to  have  been  unrecognized  save  by  a  very  few  isolated 
experimenters.  Gradation  meant,  prior  to  1900,  the  division  of 
the  school  into,  at  most,  four  departments,  with  not  more  than 
two  sets  of  lessons.  E.  Morris  Ferguson,  in  a  study  of  condi- 
tions in  the  state  of  New  Jersey,  reported  at  the  1904  conven- 
tion, that  only  8.3%  of  the  schools  attempted  gradation  of 
organization  above  the  primary  and  2.5%  above  the  Junior.13 
That  condition  then  was  better  probably  in  New  Jersey 
than  in  the  United  States  as  a  whole.  Today,  in  New  Jersey, 
over  25%  are  graded  throughout,  both  in  organization  and 
in  lessons  and  the  2.5%  has  become  80%.  For  the  whole 

loSee  "Religious  Education,"  Vol.  VII,  56(5-569. 
uSee  "Religious  Education,"  Vol.  Ill,  49  and  55-62. 

i2See  Survey  by  Cope  in  Reports  of  World  S.  S.  Convention,  1910   (Inter.  S.  S. 
Ass'n.)  and  also  pp.  168-172  in  "Evolution  of  the  S.  S."  (Pilgrim  Press,  1911.) 
""The  Bible  in  Practical  Life,"  p.  214. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  9 


country  it  would  be  safe  to  estimate  that  today  at  least  60%  of 
the  schools  are  graded  to  the  extent  then  found  in  his  2.5% 
and  40%  attempt  gradation  up  to  the  age  of  eighteen  for  all 
pupils. 

The  first  convention  of  the  R.  E.  A.  called  attention  to  the 
twin  defects,  lack  of  purposeful  organization  and  of  a  designed 
curriculum.14  Late  in  the  year  1903  a  scheme  of  gradation  was 
published  in  Haslett's  "Pedagogical  Bible  School."  This  was 
based  on  the  work  which  the  late  Professor  Pease  had  already 
done  on  the  curriculum  of  the  school,  work  which  he  elabor- 
ated and  advocated  in  his  "Outline  of  a  Bible-school  Curricu- 
lum."13 Thus  fortunately  the  first  serious  essays  in  the  grada- 
tion of  pupils  grew  logically  out  of  the  attempt  to  provide 
selected,  graded  studies,  adapted  to  the  pupil's  stage  of  devel- 
opment. 

Gradation  in  organization  is  without  significance  save  in 
view  of  the  general  adoption  of  graded  studies  selected  on  the 
scientific  basis.  At  the  beginning  of  this  decade  practically 
all  schools  were  using  a  single  lesson,  with  the  following  excep- 
tions :  Unitarian,  Episcopal,  Friends,  Hebrew,  Roman  Catholic 
and  those  using  the  Blakcslee  series.  In  many  of  these  schools 
the  uniform  lesson  ran  through  several  strata  of  the  schools 
and  even  the  special  lessons  were  graded  and  selected  on  an 
intellectual  basis  rather  than  on  that  of  the  student's  psycho- 
logical development.  Outside  these  a  few  special  texts  had 
been  prepared,  such  as  "The  Beginners  Two  Years"  and  some 
texts  for  adults.  Then  came  the  careful  work  of  Professor 
Pease  and  the  courses  actually  put  into  use  under  the  supcrin- 
tendency  of  President  Harper.  These  two  attempts  laid  the 
foundations  of  "The  Constructive  Series,"  now  approximately 
complete  after  ten  years'  work.16  Meanwhile  individuals  pre- 
pared parts  of  courses,17  and  the  principles  of  gradation  were 
advocated  and  illustrated  in  outlines  of  courses  at  the  differ- 
ent conventions  of  this  Association.  Schools  in  different  places 
prepared  special  courses  and  published  text  books.18  At  the 

""Improvements  of  Religions  Education"  (1903)—  Blackall,  p.  175;  Mathews  p.186. 

isGeorge  W.  Pease  "Outline  of  a  Bible  School  Curriculum,"  U.  of  C.  Press,  1904. 

""Constructive  Bible  Studies,"  University  of  Chicago  Press. 

17Notable  studies  were  prepared  by  Committee  of  the  Illinios  Congregational 
Association  on  "A  Course  of  Study  for  Graded  Sunday  Schools,"  appointed  in  1901, 
which  issued  valuable  annual  reports. 

i^To  mention  but  a  few:  Second  Congregational.  Oak  Park,  111.;  St.  Agnes,  New, 
York;  University  Congregational,  Chicago;  Church  of  the  Disciples,  Boston;  Teachers' 
College  School,  New  York;  St.  John's,  Providence.  (For  the  outline  of  these  and 
others  sec  "Religious  Education,"  Vol.  II,  December,  1907.) 


10  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


end  of  five  years  it  was  possible  to  publish  a  list  of  sixty 
available  texts  for  classes  up  to  the  age  of  eighteen  and  thirty- 
four  for  those  over  that  age.19  At  the  end  of  ten  years  we  have 
three  independent  courses  practically  complete  for  all  grades, 
and  other  courses  in  preparation  besides  many  special  texts. 
The  avidity  with  which  the  graded  material  was  accepted  by 
schools  was  only  the  preface  to  a  widespread  and  most  earnest 
appeal  for  thoroughly  graded  courses  suitable  to  almost  all 
schools.  The  International  Association,  after  much  hesitation 
and  apparent  reluctance,  directed  its  Lesson  Committee  to  pre- 
pare a  series  of  lessons  for  every  grade  in  the  school.20  Since 
this  official  action  the  adoption  of  graded  curricula  has  been 
accomplished  to  a  degree  far  beyond  the  expectation  of  its 
warmest  advocates.  At  the  beginning  of  this  year  The  Baptist 
Publication  Society  reported  over  50%  of  their  sales  of  lesson 
helps  were  graded;  the  Congregationalists  estimate  25%  of 
their  schools  using  the  international  graded  and  a  very  large, 
probably  an  equal  percentage,  using  other  graded  systems; 
among  the  Unitarians  over  80%  use  graded  lessons.  In  all 
communions  the  "Constructive  series"  and  the  Scribner's 
"Complete  Graded"  have  large  use. 

The  editor  of  the  Baptist  series  writing  in  "The  Superin- 
tendent" in  1912,  said,  "A  volume  might  be  filled  with  the 
words  of  praise  that  have  been  written  about  the  Graded  Les- 
sons by  those  who  have  witnessed  the  results  that  follow  a  fair 
trial."* 

The  development  of  ecclesiastical  responsibility  for  the 
Sunday-school  curriculum  is  reflected  in  the  action  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  in  appointing  a  Permanent  Com- 
mittee on  Sunday-school  Lessons,  (Baltimore,  1910).  Similar 
action  was  taken  at  the  M.  E.  General  Conference  (Minneapolis, 
1912)  and  the  Presbyterian  General  Assembly  (Pittsburg, 
1912). 

The  development  of  Catholic  Sunday  schools  deserves 
special  mention,  for  it  has  become  sufficiently  general  to  de- 
mand the  publication  of  special  manuals  of  direction  on  or- 
ganization and  studies  (The  Catholic  Sunday  School — Feeny; 
S.  S.  Director's  Guide — Sloan,  and  others).  New  schools  are 
being  organized  and  parishes  are  supplementing  the  work  in 

19Published  in  pamphlet  form  by  the  R.  E.  A. 

20Louisville  Convention,  June,  1908;  the  first  lessons,  one  each  year  for  "Begin- 
ners,, Primary  and  Junior"  were  issued  in  January,  1909. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  11 


parochial  schools  by  Sunday  courses  in  Bible  history  and  the 
catechism. 

Among  the  Hebrew  congregations  progress  has  been 
marked.  The  outstandingjeatures  have  been,  the  organization 
of  Sunday  schools  in  addition  to  Sabbath  schools,  often  where 
there  are  no  Sabbath  schools;  the  establishment  of  standards 
of  teacher-training  and  the  creation  of  the  Teachers'  Institute 
of  Hebrew  Union  College  (See  Religious  Educ.  Vol  .VI,  p.  276) ; 
and  the  adoption  of  graded  curricula.  Rabbi  Zepin  describes 
the  steps  of  progress  in  detail  in  "Religious  Education"  for 
April,  1913. 

As  to  progress  abroad,  there  has  been  relatively  little  im- 
provement in  the  Sunday-school  situation  in  Great  Britain. 
Two  facts  may  be  noted,  (1)  the  development  of  Teacher- 
training  work  principally  through  the  extension  activities  of 
theological  halls  and  colleges.  The  English  church  has  a  per- 
manent college  in  London  for  the  training  of  primary  workers 
and  a  plan  for  training  all  the  teachers  of  that  church.  The 
British  "Home  Reading  Union"  offers  courses  in  Child  Psychol- 
ogy with  a  view  to  better  Sunday  school  work.  (2)  The  sta- 
tistics of  the  Wesleyan,  Baptist,  Presbyterian,  Methodist  and 
Congregational  bodies  show  a  total  falling  off  of  the  enroll- 
ment of  the  Sunday  school  pupils  of  about  30,000  in  the  com- 
parative figures  of  1911  and  1912.  At  the  same  time  the  Episco- 
pal Sunday  schools  made  an  increase  of  over  40,000.  These 
figures  are  to  be  studied  in  the  light  of  the  fact  that  the  first 
group  of  schools  have  taken  a  general  reactionary  attitude 
toward  Graded  Lessons  and  curricula  improvement;  while  on 
the  other  hand,  the  Friends  who  seem  to  have  suffered  no  loss 
and  the  Church  of  England  which  made  so  decided  a  gain, 
have  within  the  last  fliree  years  instituted  modern  curricula. 

II.   THE  CHURCH  AND  ITS  SCHOOL. 

The  adoption  of  graded  curricula  was  only  indicative  of 
an  important  change  in  the  life  of  the  churches,  due  to  the 
returning  consciousness  of  a  definite,  social  function,  that  of 
developing  lives  to  spiritual  completeness.  Churches  have 
come  to  interpret  their  work  in  terms  of  education.  In  a 
"Message  from  the  Committee  on  Evangelism"  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  this  phrase  occurs,  following  an  appeal  for  evangelistic 
service:  "In  our  denomination  we  have  proclaimed  our  faith 
in  educational  religion  and  religious  education."  Accepting 


12  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


that  mission  the  organizations  for  youth  naturally  yielded  first 
to  the  laws  of  education.  The  school  passed  in  one  decade 
through  two  distinct  phases  of  growth;  ceasing  to  be  that  neg- 
ligible, nondescript  gathering  known  as  a  Sunday  school,  it 
became,  first  a  "Bible  school,"  and  second,  it  became  "The 
School  of  the  Church,"  or,  as  it  is  occasionally  called,  "A 
School  of  Religion."  When  the  school  accepted  the  develop- 
ment of  religious  lives  as  its  purpose  there  stood  revealed  deep 
needs  of  life  untouched  by  Bible  study.  That  life  might  have 
its  religious  heritage  and  be  adequately  trained  necessitated 
the  inclusion  in  the  curriculum  of  religious  history  since  the 
days  of  the  New  Testament,  the  romance  of  the  religious  spirit 
in  modern  times  both  in  Missions  and  in  world  affairs,  the  prin- 
ciples of  religious  living,  morals,  the  problems  of  the  religious 
life  and  of  a  religious  order  of  social  relationships,  training  to 
efficiency  in  the  work  of  churches  and  other  spiritual  agencies. 
Therefore  courses  of  instruction  in  these  subjects  were  intro- 
duced and  the  school  actually  became  a  school  of  the  religious 
life.21  The  new,  larger  function  of  the  school  was  recognized; 
the  Northern  Baptist  Commission  on  Religious  Education  in 
its  report  for  1911  formally  recommended  that  the  Sunday 
school  be  officially  denomniated  "School  of  the  Church."22  This 
is  a  long  step  from  the  place  when  as  one  Sunday-school  au- 
thority wrote  in  a  religious  journal  in  1910,  "The  Sunday  school 
is  a  miniature  theological  seminary."  Another  result  has  been 
that  the  material  of  study  has  become  as  broad  as  the  religious 
life  by  including  missions,  social  duties,  civics,  social  service 
and  church  work. 

Accepting  an  educational  responsibility,  these  schools  have 
been  making  appropriate  physical  provision  for  their  work. 
An  auditorium  is  now  generally  recognized  as  wholly  unsuit- 
able and  inappropriate  for  school  work.  Special  buildings 
have  been  provided  and,  unlike  those  erected  prior  to  1903, 
they  have  not  been  designed  for  assembly  and  mass  auditory 
purposes  but  for  class  use.  Sunday-school  buildings  have  been 
modelled  on  public-school  plans  with  provision  for  social  and 
recreational  life.23 

2iSee  a  pamphlet  by  Dr.  John  T.  McFarland  on  "Extra-Biblical  Studies  (Eaton 
and  Mains). 

22 Annual  of  the  Northern  Baptist  Convention  for  1911. 

23Notable  examples  of  the  modern  type  of  special  physical  plant  arc:  Congrega- 
tional, Winnetka,  111.;  Brick  Church,  Rochester,  N.  Y.;  Pilgrim  Church,  Cleveland, 
Ohio  Hyde  Park  Baptist,  Chicago;  St.  Paul's  M.  E.,  Cedar  Rapids,  la.;  Second  Baptist, 
Camden,  N.  J. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  13 

Religious  education  in  the  churches  has  been  advanced  also 
by  emphasis  upon  certain  subjects.  For  example,  under  the 
stimulus  of  the  Missionary  Education  Movement,  organized  at 
the  end  of  1902,  over  one  million  text  books  in  home  and  for- 
eign missions  have  been  sold  and  some  26,000  denominational 
co-operating  study  classes  have  been  organized.  Many  sum- 
mer institutes  on  missionary  education  have  been  held.24 

Social  studies  have  received  new  and  needed  emphasis 
especially  through  the  activities  of  the  American  Institute  for 
Social  Service,  issuing  the  "Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  Series,"23 
and  by  the  work  of  church  commissions  on  Social  Service, 
notably  the  Unitarian  Department  of  Social  and  Public  Service, 
which  has  issued  twenty-five  excellent  pamphlets26  and  the 
Baptist  Commission  on  Social  Service  which  has  issued  twelve 
booklets27  and  has  prepared  an  outline  curriculum  on  social 
service. 

In  some  instances  "Temperance  instruction"  in  the  Sunday 
school  has  received  a  wiser  direction,  making  it  part  of  a  gen- 
eral program  for  instruction  in  hygiene  and  eugenics. 

Religious  education  in  the  churches  has  been  improved  by 
the  stimulus  of  special  experiments.  One  of  the  most  notable 


report  of  Young  People's  Missionary  Education  Movement,  150  Fifth  Ave., 
New  York. 

-•r'Edited  by  Dr.  Josiah  Strong,  Bible  House,  New  York. 

2°May  be  obtained  free  from  American  Unitarian  Association,  25  Beacon  Street, 
Boston,  Mass.     Titles  are: 

A  Practical  Platform  for  Social  Progress  —  Dole. 

A  Rural  Experiment  —  Bradley. 

Social  Service  for  Young  People  in  the  Church  School  —  Beatley. 

The  Inter-Relation  of  Social  Movements  —  Richmond. 

The  Improvement  of  the  Rural  School  —  Updegraff. 

Popular  Recreation  and  Public  Morality  —  Gulick. 

Rural  Economy  as  a  Factor  in  the  Success  of  the  Church  —  Carver. 

Some  Unsettled  Questions  about  Child  Labor  —  Lovejoy. 

A  Remedy  for  Industrial  Warfare  —  Eliot. 

The  Individual  and  the  Social  Order  in  Religion  —  Hinckley. 

Working  with  Boys  —  Forbes. 

The  Social  Welfare  Work  of  Unitarian  Churches  —  Forbes. 

Knowing  One's  Own  Community  —  Aronovici. 

The  Social  Conscience  and  the  Religious  Life  —  Peabody. 

Friendly  Visiting—  Richmond. 

NY  hat  Bad  Housing  Means  to  the  Community  —  Bacon. 

Comprehensive  Planning  for  Small  Towns  and  Villages  —  Nolen. 

Religious  Work  and  Opportunity  in  Country  Towns  —  A.  U.  A. 

City  Buildings  in  Germany  —  Howe. 

The  Democracy  of  the  Kingdom  —  Williams. 

The  Wise  Direction  of  Church  Activities  Toward  Social  Welfare  —  Eliot. 

-7A  Reasonable  Social  Policy  for  Christian  People  —  Henderson. 

The  Churches  Outside  The  Church  —  Coleman. 

Ethical  and  Religious  Significance  of  the  State  —  Dealey. 

A  Working  Temperance  Program  —  Batten. 

The  Home  as  the  School  for  Social   Living  —  Cope. 

The  Social  Mission  of  the  Church  —  Wishart. 

Child  Labor  —  Lovejoy. 

The  Disruption  of  the  Home  —  Chase. 

One   Rest-Day   in    Seven  —  Horsman. 

The  Housing  Problem  —  Kennedy. 

The  Church  in  the  Country  Town  —  Bemies. 

Working-Men's  Insurance  —  Henderson. 


14  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


is  that  of  religious  day  schools,  conducted  usually  during  part 
of  the  summer  vacation  term.  In  this  work  the  Rev.  Howard 
R.  Vaughn  has  been  the  pioneer.  Usually  graded  instruction 
is  given  to  children  in  churches  for  half  day  sessions  and  a 
small  tuition  fee  is  charged.*5  Another  form  of  week-day  re- 
ligious education  is  conducted  in  the  "Vacation  Bible  Schools, 
organized  in  many  cities  by  the  Daily  Vacation  Bible  School 
Association.**  Here,  in  the  crowded  sections  of  cities  large 
numbers  of  children  are  assembled  (last  year  38,000  in  160 
churches  in  24  cities)  and  are  taught  the  Bible  and  hymns 
and  are  trained  in  forms  of  light  manual  work. 

The  Federal  Council  of  Churches,  which  has  recently  ap- 
pointed a  Commission  on  Religious  Education,  urges  in  the 
report  of  the  Second  Quadrennial  Council  that  "where  it  is 
feasible  to  obtain  a  portion  of  the  time  belonging  to  the  (pub- 
lic) school  curriculum,  the  churches  should  see  to  it  that  after 
school  hours  on  week  days  at  least  an  hour's  instruction  in 
religion  be  given  to  each  child  in  the  congregation."3*  With- 
out doubt  the  attempt  to  comply  with  this  suggestion  would 
lead  to  a  recognition  of  the  still  lamentably  inadequate  educa- 
ional  equipment  and  working  force  in  the  average  church. 

The  educational  conception  led  to  the  inclusion  for  the 
Young  People's  Societies  in  the  program  of  the  church  school. 
While  progress  here  has  been  very  slow  certain  general 
marked  improvements  may  be  noted:  the  emergence  of  their 
function  as  the  social  organization  of  youth  life  for  service  in 
expressional  activities;*1  provision  of  special  courses  of  study 
and  outlines  of  reading;  making  the  Sunday  or  weekly  gath- 
ering an  opportunity  for  reporting  on  community  needs  and 
plans  of  work.** 

The  Brotherhoods,  rising  in  power  in  churches  and  seeking 
national  organization  in  1907  and  1908,  accepted  an  educa- 
tional duty.  The  local  groups  were  organized  for  fellowship, 
study  and  service.  Many  outlines  of  courses  were  prepared 

by  Rrr.  Rafts 
lurch  Review, 

G.  Bovine,  Secretary, 

Buffalo  X.  Y.,  outlined  in  Dr. 

L  on  ttaeir  tenses  of  study  see 

tbe  writer's 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  13 


accompanied  by  plans  of  community  service,  and  usually  deal- 
ing with  practical  aspects  of  the  lives  of  men.33  In  like  manner 
the  Boys  and  Girls'  Clubs  have  developed  from  their  earlier 
types,  either  loose  groupings  for  recreation  or  mere  attempts 
to  bribe  the  young  into  the  church,  and  have  adapted  them- 
selves to  the  program  of  religious  education.  Here  again  a 
notable  literature  with  the  educational  viewpoint  has  been 
created.34 

The  recognition  of  an  educational  function  in  the  church 
has  aroused  a  consciousness  of  the  need  of  trained  educational 
leadership.  The  direction  of  a  school  became  a  task  worthy  of 
trained  powers.  Churches  called  for  professional  educators. 
Seminaries,  co-operating  with  departments  of  education,  pre- 
pared specialists  for  the  profession  of  "Directors  of  Religious 
Education."  In  1907  the  city  of  New  Haven  employed  a  Super- 
intendent of  all  its  Sunday  schools;  in  1908  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church  of  Buffalo  called  to  itself  the  first  trained  "Di- 
rector of  Religious  Education"  in  a  local  church.  This  was  one 
of  the  most  significant  steps  ever  taken  in  the  history  of  Sunday 
schools.35  There  are  today  about  seventy-five  churches  em- 
ploying such  directors. 

A  CHURCH   PROGRAM  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  employment  of  professional  directors  implied  a  recog- 
nition on  the  part  of  the  church  that  its  educational  duties 
extend  beyond  the  Sunday  classes.  The  director  is  in  charge 
of  all  the  religious  educational  activities  of  the  church.  At  the 
Boston  Convention,  1905,  Dr.  W.  C.  Bitting  called  attention  to 
the  need  of  co-ordinating  the  various  educational  activities 
of  the  church.36  In  1910  the  Northern  Baptist  Convention  ap- 
pointed a  special  commission  on  this  subject.  Today,  in  all 
the  churches  of  the  educational  consciousness,  programs  are 
being  worked  out  seeking  to  organize  the  whole  work  of  a 
church  on  a  functional  basis,  to  relate  together  the  different 
agencies  for  the  life  of  youth  and  to  establish  co-ordinated, 
definite  programs  of  religious  education.  The  Baptist  Com- 

83For  titles  see  p.  114  in  the  writer's  "Efficient  Layman"   (Am.  Bap.  1911). 

34Some  notable  titles  are : 

"The  Boy  Problem,"  by  W.  B.  Forbush,  Pilgrim  Press,  7'>c,  1902. 

"The  Boy  and  His  Gang,"  J.  Tupper,  Houghton,  Mifflin,  $1.00,  1912. 

"The  Minister  and  the  Boy,"  Allan  Hoben,  University  of  Chicago  Press,  $1.00.  1912. 

"The  Coming  Generation,"  Forbush,  Appleton,  $1.50,  $1912. 

"How  to  Deal  with  Lads,"  P.  Green,  Longmans,  80c,  1910. 

"The  Girl  in  Her  Teens,"  Slattery,  S.  S.  Times  Co.,  50c,  1910. 

35Directors — Articles  in  Beligious  Education. 

36"Bible  in  Practical  Life,"  p.  96. 


16  RELIGIOUS  EDUCA  TION. 


mission  and  the  Disciples  Commission  are  preparing  to  report 
this  spring  detailed  schemes  for  the  organization  in  local 
churches  of  systems  of  religious  education.  A  special  com- 
mission of  the  R.  E.  A.  presents  a  report  on  the  same  subject 
at  this,  the  Cleveland,  convention.  (Published  in  Religious 
Education,  April,  1913.) 

Individual  responsiveness  in  local  churches  has  led  to  de- 
nominational consciousness.  Nearly  all  the  different  com- 
munions have  come  so  clearly  to  accept  their  educational  duty 
as  to  appoint  Commissions  or  Boards  of  Religious  Education.37 

3"The  following  are  the  principal  commissions. 

Episcopal — "Board  of  Religious  Education,"  appointed  1910.  Secretary,  Rev. 
William  Gardner,  281  Fourth  Ave.,  New  York.  s 

Baptist  (Northern) — "Commission  on  Religious  Education,"  appointed  1909. 
Secretary,  Ira  M.  Price,  University  of  Chicago. 

Presbyterian  Commission,  (1908).  President,  George  B.  Stewart,  LL.D.,  Auburn, 
New  York. 

German  Evangelical— Rev.  H.  F.  Frigge,  1228  E.  Breckenridge  St.,  Louisville,  Ky. 

Congregational — National  Council  Committee,  1904.  Secretary,  Rev.  Percival 
Huget,  First  Congregational  Church,  Detroit,  Mich. 

German  Evangelical  Synod — Rev.  W.  Schlenkmann,  Columbia,  111. 

Presbyterian  in  Canada — Secretary,  Rev.  A.  J.  W.  Myers,  1C  Manton  Court,  Rose- 
dale,  Toronto,  Can. 

Seventh  Day  Baptist — Sabbath  School  Board.  Secretary,  Dr.  A.  Lowell  Burdick, 
Janesville,  Wis. 

A  study  of  the  development  of  the  work  of  these  commissions  reveals  the  serious- 
ness with  which  church  leaders  now  regard  the  scope  and  the  possibilities  of  religious 
education. 

A.     PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 

"1.  Appointment  by  General  Convention  in  1904  of  "Joint  Commission  on  Re- 
ligious Instruction.  (Reappointed  for  3  years  more  in  1907.)  See  Reports  1907,  1910. 

'2.     Gradual  multiplication  of  Diocesan  Commissions  to  handle  Sunday  school 


matters  until  now  nearly  all  Dioceses  in  U.  S.  A.  are  so  equipped. 

"3.     Continued  experimentation,  partly  by  individuals,  Rectors  ana  isupermtena- 
ents   partly    (and  latterly  more)    by   Diocesan   Commissions,   with   different  types   of 


curricula. 

"4.  The  widespread  adoption  during  these  years,  by  nearly  all  vigorous  schools, 
of  a  graded  system. 

"5.     Epoch-making  Report  in  1907  of  the  Joint  Commission. 

"6.  Gradual  introduction  after  1907  of  Standard  Course  in  Teacher  Training. 
(Mostly  ratified  and  reissued  by  new  General  Board  of  Religious  Education,  1912.) 

"7.  Establishment  1908-1912  of  various  'Diocesan  Training  Schools,'  in  larger 
centers  for  Teacher  Training. 

"8.     Increase,  during  same  period  of  Summer  Schools  for  S.  S.  Teachers. 

"9.  Appointment  in  1910-11  by  General  Convention  of  A  General  Board  of  Re- 
ligious Education  with  executive  powers.  (Oflice,  281  Fourth  Ave.,  New  York  City. 
See  literature  of  Board.) 

"10.     Formulation  1911-13  of  work  of  this  Board. 

(a)  Election  of  General  Secretary.     Rev.  Win.  E.  Gardner. 

(b)  Establishment  of  Standard  Teacher  Training  Course, 
(cj   Establishment  of  Correspondence  School. 

(d)   Issue  of  official  curriculum. 

"11.  Organization  of  Church  into  eight  Departments  (geographical)  each  Depart- 
ment with  annual  Sunday  school  convention,  with  representatives  elected  from  each 
Diocese  by  Diocesan  Convention." — Reported  by  Rev.  Lester  Bradner,  Ph.D. 

B.     CONGREGATIONAL. 

"1.  The  appointment  of  committee  oil  religious  education  in  the  National  Coun- 
cil, which  committee  made  an  extended  report  at  the  last  meeting,  October,  1910. 

"2.  The  appointment  of  corresponding  committees  during  the  last  three  years 
in  connection  with  each  state  conference  and  local  association. 

"3.  The  adoption,  preparation  and  distribution  of  graded  lessons,  until  now  the 
entire  school  with  the  exception  of  year  10  and  years  18  to  20  is  supplied  with  them. 
Two  more  courses  are  to  appear  next  fall. 

"4.  The  appointment  of  an  educational  secretary  and  of  several  experts  who 
serve  on  his  staff;  also  the  organization  of  an  educational  department  in  connection 
with  the  Congregational  Sunday  School  and  Publishing  Society. 

"5.     The  adoption  of  a  Sunday  School  standard. 

"(5.  The  selection  of  a  series  of  text  books  for  the  training  of  teachers  and  the 
setting  up  of  standards  for  the  same. 

"7.  The  holding  of  numerous  institutes  throughout  the  country  in  the  interest 
of  a  more  effective  religious  education  through  the  Sunday  school. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  17 


III.  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARIES. 

Closely  related  to  the  educational  development  of  the 
churches  has  been  the  adaptation  of  Theological  Seminaries 
to  the  new  needs  of  the  ministry.38  Prior  to  the  period  of  our 
study  the  seminaries  recognized  the  educational  needs  of  the 
churches  to  the  extent  of  occasional  lectures  on  the  Sunday 
school.  Professor  T.  Harwood  Pattison,  of  Rochester  Theologi- 
cal Seminary,  dignified  this  into  a  regular  course.39  In  1903 
the  Hartford  School  of  Religious  Pedagogy  was  established  in 
connection  with  Hartford  Theological  Seminary.  In  1906  the 
Southern  Raptist  Theological  Seminary  established  a  chair  of 
"Sunday  School  Pedagogy."  In  1907,  of  the  196  Seminaries  in 
the  United  States,  four  offered  courses  in  child  study,  twenty- 
four  in  educational  psychology,  thirteen  in  the  history  and 
organization  of  the  Sunday  school,  twenty-two  had  lecture 
courses  by  visitors.  In  1912,  of  sixty-three  Theological  Sem- 
inaries reporting,  fifty  have  made  provision  for  one  or  more 
courses  preparing  ministers  for  leadership  in  religious  educa- 

"8.  The  enlargement  of  the  scope  of  the  missionary  department  of  the  Sunday 
School  and  Publishing  Society  to  include  an  extension  department  and  the  appointment 
of  men  from  the  field  who  are  qualified  not  only  for  planting  new  Sunday  Schools  but 
also  for  improving  the  quality  of  those  now  in  existence." — Reported  by  Rev.  B.  S.  Win- 
chester, D.D. 

C.  PRESBYTERIAN. 

"The  most  significant  advance  in  religious  education  in  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  U.  S.  A.  during  recent  years  is  the  movement  in  the  interests  of  vmifying  and  co- 
ordinating the  educational  agencies  and  activities  in  connection  with  the  local  parish. 
We  have  made  substantial  progress  in  unifying  the  missionary  educational  agencies  and 
a  good  deal  of  preliminary  work  has  been  done  toward  co-ordinating  the  other 
agencies  and  co-ordinating  them  with  the  missionary  agencies. 

"We  have  also  made  substantial  progress  in  the  matter  of  organizing  the  material 
for  religious  education  so  that  pastors  are  being  furnished  with  aids  for  something  like 
systematic  instruction  for  their  use." — Geo.  B.  Steward. 

D.  CHRISTIAN. 

"Within  the  past  five  years  a  revolution  has  been  wrought  in  the  ideals  and 
programs  both  of  our  Sunday  school  leaders  and  of  our  association  and  colleges.  Re- 
ligious education  is  at  once  the  whole  scope  and  justification  of  the  existence  of  the 
Disciples  of  Christ." — Robert  P.  Shepherd. 

E.  METHODIST. 

"The  introduction  of  graded  instruction  into  our  Sunday  schools  is  the  most 
significant  thing  that  has  occurred  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  recent  years. 
Its  effect  is  fundamental,  and  is  rapidly  revolutionizing  the  conception  of  the  Sunday 
school,  and  of  religious  education  in  the  church.  The  organization  of  our  present 
Board  of  Sunday  schools,  which  was  effected  in  1908,  putting  our  whole  organized  Sun- 
day school  work  upon  a  new  basis,  and  providing  machinery  for  more  extended 
efforts,  is  a  part  of  the  general  movement  growing  out  of  the  new  conception  of  the 
Sunday  school  as  an  educational  agency.  And  as  a  part  also  of  this  movement  may 
be  noted  the  establishment  in  our  theological  schools  of  departments  of  religious 
pedagogy." — John  H.  MacFarland. 

F.  UNITARIAN. 

"We  note  an  improvement  of  interest  and  an  improvement  in  method  all  along 
the  line.  The  Tuckerman  School  grows,  there  is  an  increased  interest  in  Summer 
Institutes,  and  a  growing  number  of  paid  superintendents  and  teachers.  The  American 
Unitarian  Association  has  taken  our  work  from  a  corner  and  put  it  in  the  center  of 
the  field."— W.  I.  Lawrence. 

sssee  the  "Survey  of  Progress  in  Theological  Seminaries"  by  Professor  Williston 
Walker,  in  Religious  Education,  Vol.  VII,  p.  620. 

39"The  Ministry  of  the  Sunday  School,"  T.  H.  Pattison  (Amer.  Baptist,  1902,  $1.00) 


18  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


tion.40  In  these  institutions  the  work  is  cared  for  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner: 

Chairs  of  Religious  Education  with  special  professors — 10. 

Courses  in  Religious  Education,  usually  in  charge  of  a  full 
professor  and  having  work  grouped  under  several  other  in- 
structors— 12. 

Lectureships  and  special  courses — 28. 

Occasional  work  in  Religious  Pedagogy  and  Psychology  of 
Religion — 10. 

Leaving  only  three  absolutely  ignoring  this  work. 

In  such  seminaries  as  Union,  University  of  Chicago  and 
Yale  Divinity,  specialists  are  being  prepared.  For  example, 
Professor  Goe  reports  for  Union  that  of  the  men  who  went  out 
last  year,  1912,  four  are  now  Directors  of  Religious  Education 
in  churches,  one  is  a  Religious  Educational  Secretary  for  a  de- 
nomination, one  a  member  of  a  college  faculty  with  work  in 
Religious  Education,  one  a  Sunday-school  Field  Secretary  for 
a  denomination  and  one  Supervisor  of  a  denominational  Sun- 
day school  in  China. 

Space  forbids  the  analysis  of  the  forces  contributing  to 
progress  in  the  church  and  Sunday  school.41  It  must  suffice  to 
mention  (1)  World  dominance  of  scientific  thought,  (2)  gen- 
eral educational  awakening  and  reconstruction,  (3)  new  inter- 
est in  the  child,42  (4)  the  application  of  educational  leaders 
to  practical  problems,43  (5)  the  significance  of  new  and  vital 

40The  most  significant  work  in  Religious  Education  in  Theological  Seminaries 
all  of  which  has  originated  in  the  last  seven  years,  is  at  the  following  institutions: 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York  City.     (Prof.  Geo.  A.  Coe.) 
Yale  University,  New  Haven,  Conn.     (Prof.  Chas.  F.  Kent.) 
University  of  Chicago,  Chicago,  111.      (Prof.  Theo.   G.   Scares.) 
Boston  University  School  of  Theology,  Boston,  Mass.    (Prof.  N.  E.  Richardson.) 
Southern    Baptist    Theological     Seminary,    Louisville,     Ky.     (Prof.     Byron    E. 

Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  Chicago,  111.     (Prof.  Frank  G.  Ward.) 

General  Theological  Seminary   (Prot.-Epis.),  New  York,  N.  Y.     (Prof.  Chas.  H. 

Drew  Theological  Seminary,  Madison,  N.  J.     (Prof.  Wm.  J.  Thompson.) 

4iThe  writer  has  attempted  such  an  analysis  in  his  "Evolution  of  the  Sunday 
School,"  at  Chapter  XI. 

42Regarding  the  application  of  the  scientific  method  to  child-study  President  G. 
Stanley  Hall  says: 

"It  has  almost  recreated  the  department  of  criminology;  has  revolutionized  and 
almost  recreated  school  hygiene ;  made  adolescence,  a  strange  word  ten  years  ago,  one 
of  the  most  pregnant  and  suggestive  for  both  science  and  education  given  us  the  basis 
of  a  new  religious  psychology ;  and  laid  the  foundation  of  a  new  and  larger  philosophy 
and  psychology." 

43Notably  the  work  of  the  following  in  many  directions  and  in  their  wrorks  as 

Coe,  G.  A.,  "Education  in  Religion  and  Morals."    Revell,  1904. 

Starbuck,  E.  D.,  "Psychology  of  Religion."     Scribner's,  1901. 

King,  H.  C.,  "Personal  and  Ideal  Elements  in  Education."     Macmillaii. 

Hall,  G.   S.,  "Adolescence."     Appletons. 

Burton,  E.  D.  and  Mathews,  S.,  "Principles  and  Ideals  in  the  Sunday  School." 

And  before  these,  still  profoundly  influencing  our  thinking,  Horace  Bushnell, 
"Christian  Nurture."  Scribners. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  19 


views  of  religion  and  the  Bible,44  and  (6)  the  direction  of  great 
organized  movements.  Of  the  last  the  history  of  the  Interna- 
tional Sunday  School  Association  is  a  notable  instance.  It 
has  shown  a  responsiveness  to  critcism  and  to  educational 
suggestion  which  has  been  beyond  the  expectation  of  its 
friends. 

IV.   THE  HOME. 

Progress  in  religious  education  in  the  Home  was  so  thor- 
oughly studied  by  Professor  C.  W.  Votaw  in  his  Survey  pre- 
sented at  the  Providence  convention45  that  little  remains  to  be 
said  at  this  time.  The  past  decade  has  been  a  period  of  awak- 
ening which  has  led  to  the  creation  of  special  organizations 
for  the  protection  of  the  home  and  for  the  moral  training  of 
children.46  It  has  given  rise  to  special  literature  both  in  period- 
icals47 and  books,48  and  to  much  public  propaganda  including 
conferences  and  conventions,  and  in  particular  "The  Child 
Welfare  Exhibits,"  the  first  of  which  was  held  in  New  York 
City  in  January,  1911.49  One  of  the  most  significant  events  was 
the  Third  International  Congress  on  Education  in  the  Home, 
held  at  Brussels  in  the  summer  of  1910,  marked  by  keen  inter- 
est in  the  problems  of  moral  and  religious  training.  Both 
churches  and  public  schools  have  accepted  to  some  extent  the 
duty  of  preparing  young  people  for  parenthood  and  home- 
making,  not  only  in  courses  in  domestic  science  but  also  in 
work  on  the  training  of  children  and  the  higher  life  of  the 
home.  The  special  courses  are  not  many  but  they  are  signifi- 
cant of  this  new  development.50 

^Illustrated  in 

"Religion  of  a  Mature  Mind,"  George  A.  Coe.     Revell,  1903. 

"New  Appreciation  of  the  Bible,"  W.  C.  Selleck.    U.  of  C.  Press. 

"Origin  and  Permanent  Value  of  the  O.  T.,"  C.  F.  Kent.     Scribners. 

"Psychology  of  Religious  Experience,"  E.   S.  Ames.     Houghton,  Mifflin. 

"Principles  of  Religious  Development,"  George  Galloway.     McMillan. 

45published  in"Religious  Education,"  Vol.  VI,  p.  1. 

48The  Mothers'  Congress,  Philadelphia;  L'Unione  Familiale,  Paris;  The  League 
for  the  Popularization  of  the  Science  of  Pedagogy  for  Families,  publishing  L'Educatione 
Familiale,  Brussels  ;  The  Home  Progress  Society,  Cambridge,  Mass.  ;  After  School  Club, 
Philadelphia. 

47American  Motherhood,  Cooperstown,  N.  Y.;  Child  Welfare,  Philadelphia; 
Home  Progress,  Cambridge,  Mass.;  The  Child,  Chicago;  Child  Life,  London. 

48In  addition  to  the  bibliography  published  with  Professor  Votaw's  Survey 
("Religious  Education,"  April  1911)  mention  may  be  made  of  "Ethics  and  the  Family," 
W.  F.  Lofthouse,  Hodder  Stoughtoii,  1912;  "The  Future  Citizen,"  F.  A.  Myers,  Sherman 
French,  1911;  "The  School  in  the  Home."  A.  A.  Berle,  Moffatt  Yard,  1921;  the  pamphlets 
of  the  Baptist  Commission  on  Social  Service. 


excellent   bibliography   on   child   welfare   was   prepared   by   the    Chicago 
Public  Library  and  circulated  at  the  Chicago  Child  Welfare  Exhibit. 


soQn  the  work  of  churches  see  "Religious  Education,"  Vol.  VI,  pp.  62,  69,  242. 
On  the  work  of  the  school  see  "Religious  Education,"  Vol.  VI.  p.  159,  and  also  the 
"Materials  of  Religious  Education,"  p.  225.  An  excellent  course  for  use  in  churches  is 
"Child  Nature  and  Child  Nurture"  by  Edw.  P.  St.  John  (Pilgrim  Press,  1911,  75c). 


20  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


The  remarkable  interest  in  what  is  known  as  sex  educa- 
tion has  its  roots  in  the  needs  of  the  home  and  the  literature  on 
Eugenics  is  the  answer  to  a  consciousness  of  racial  responsi- 
bility for  the  home.  The  International  Eugenics  Congress  in 
London,  last  summer,  was  a  testimony  to  a  race  purpose  as  to 
the  primary  function  of  the  home.  The  establishment  of  a  de- 
partment of  the  Federal  government  of  the  United  States, 
known  as  the  Children's  Bureau,51  means  a  directed,  scientific 
study  of  all  that  makes  for  child  welfare  with  especial  atten- 
tion to  the  home  and  family.52 

V.   PUBLIC   SCHOOLS. 

Popular  criticism  on  education  has  turned  its  attention  in 
the  past  ten  years  from  the  college  to  the  public  school  and 
just  now  the  accusation  is  less  that  they  do  not  prepare  for 
making  a  living,  than  that  they  do  not  fit  for  life.  As  a  people 
we  begin  to  demand  a  moral  product  from  the  schools.  Per- 
haps in  advance  of  public  opinion,  however,  a  moral  con- 
science has  been  developing  within  the  school  forces.  No  one 
can  move  amongst  school  workers  without  realizing  their  dis- 
content with  the  informational  ideal,  their  discarding  of  school 
mechanization  and  their  awakening  to  the  personal  aim  in  edu- 
cation. Two  significant  phrases  have  become  current;  they 
are  basic  to  modern  thinking  on  public  education;  first:  we 
deal  with  persons  as  behaving  organisms53  and  second:  we 
aim  at  social  efficiency.™  The  social  concept  has  come  to  stay;55 
that  its  implications  are  profoundly  moral  must  be  self-evi- 
dent.56 It  has  led  to  a  re-examination  of  method,  a  re-valuation 
of  materials.  It  finds  expression  in  such  a  declaration  as  that 
adopted  at  the  R.  E.  A.  Conference  on  Moral  Phases  of  Public 
Education  in  1912,57  "We  believe  that  the  Moral  aim,  i.  e.  the 
formation  of  character,  should  be  treated  as  fundamental  in 
all  education";  in  the  declarations  of  the  N.  E.  A.58  notably, 
that  adopted  in  1905. 


Children's  Bureau,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Miss  Julia  Lathrop,  Directress. 
52The  first  publication  of  the  Children's  Bureau  is  a  report  of  investigations  on 

Birth  Registrations  with  suggestions  on  legal  enactments. 

sssee  Chap.  1  of  "Educational  Values,"  Bagley.     (Macmillan,  1911.) 

54Stated  by  Dewey  in  "My  Educational  Creed,"  1897.     Discussed  by  Bagley  for 

one,  in  "Educative  Process"  (1905). 

55See  the  splendid  survey  in  "Social  Aspects  of  Education,"  Irving  King.     (Mac- 

millan, 1911.) 

66E.  G.    See  "Moral  Principles  of  Education"  (Dewey).     (Houghton  Mifflin.) 
57Held  at  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University,  February,  1911.     Declarations 

in  "Religious  Education,"  Vol.  VI,  page  117. 

Sec.  4  in  the  Resolutions  of  1910,  and  Sec.  4  in  1911. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  21 


"The  Association  regrets  the  revival  in  some  quarters  of  the  idea  that  the 
common  school  is  a  place  for  teaching  nothing  but  reading,  spelling,  writing  and 
ciphering;  and  takes  this  occasion  to  declare  that  the  ultimate  object  of  popular 
education  is  to  teach  the  children  how  to  live  righteously,  healthily,  and  happily, 
and  that  to  accomplish  this  object  it  is  essential  that  every  school  inculcate  the 
love  of  truth,  justice,  purity  and  beauty  through  the  study  of  biography,  history, 
ethics,  natural  history,  music,  drawing  and  manual  arts.  .  .  .  The  building  of  char- 
acter is  the  real  aim  of  the  schools  and  the  ultimate  reason  for  the  expenditure  of 
millions  for  their  maintenance.'^ 

The  development  of  a  conscience  for  character  has  found 
expression,  not  only  in  the  fundamental  considerations  of  edu- 
cational theory  and  practice,  but  in  a  large  body  of  special 
literature  on  moral  training;  in  February,  1911,  the  R.  E.  A. 
published  a  list  of  book  titles  on  "Moral  Instruction  and  Train- 
ing in  Public  Schools,"  nine  pages  of  which  were  given  to 
titles  on  principles  and  method,  and  five  to  text  books  for  use 
in  the  grades.  Almost  all  these  books  originated  in  the  past 
decade.  More  recent  literature  is  even  more  strongly  marked 
by  this  now  rapidly  developing  interest.60 

In  1906  the  N.  E.  A.  published  a  list  of  58  papers  on  Moral 
and  religious  education,  presented  at  their  conventions  in  47 
years,  1859-1906.61  A  "Short  Bibliography"  prepared  especially 
for  Europe,  in  1908,  contained  nearly  100  titles  for  Great 
Britain  and  300  for  the  Continent.62 

Moral  training  has  been  under  investigation  by  specialists. 
In  1906  an  anonymous  donor  offered  substantial  money  prizes 
for  the  best  essays  on  this  subject.  The  successful  ones  were 
published  in  a  useful  volume.63  The  Council  of  the  R.  E.  A.  has 
organized  two  important  conferences,  New  York,  1911,64  and 
Cleveland,  1913.65  The  N.  E.  A.  in  1907  appointed  a  committee 
of  its  National  Council  to  investigate  and  submit  a  "Tentative 
Report  on  a  system  of  teaching  Morals  in  the  Public  School; 
this  body  reported  in  1911.66  Meanwhile  the  experiments  of 
individual  workers,  notably  the  constructive  work  of  Prof. 
F.  C.  Sharp  and  Mr.  Percival  Chubb,  and  the  work  of  the 
ethical  culture  schools  have  all  made  their  contribution.67 

59proceeding  of  N.  E.  A.,  1905. 

ooNote  the  survey  in  Chap.  V,  on  "Moral  Education"  in  G.  Stanley  Hall's  "Edu- 
cational Problems."  Appleton,  1912. 

eiFiftieth  Anniversary  Volume,  N.  E.  A.,  1906,  page  715. 

62ln  Vol.  II  of  "Moral  Instruction  &  Training  in  Schools."     (Longmans.) 

63"Moral  Training  in  Public  Schools,"  by  C.  E.  Hugh,  T.  P.  Stevenson,  E.  D. 
Starbuck,  et  al.  (Ginn  &  Co.,  1907.) 

e^Proceedings  published  in  "Religious  Education"  for  February  and  April,  1911. 

esproceedings  published  in  "Religious  Education"  for  February  and  June,  1913. 

sepublished  in  1911,  San  Francisco,  Proceedings  of  the  N.  E.  A.;  High  School 
Section  reprinted  in  "Religious  Education"  for  February,  1913. 

B7For  a  recent  survey  see  Vol.  of  American  Committee's  Report  to  Second  Moral 
Education  Congress  (Ethical  Culture  Schools,  N.  Y.,  1912). 


22  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


Credit  should  also  be  given  to  the  work  of  the  department  of 
Public  Schools  in  the  R.  E.  A.68 

The  rapid  growth  of  public  interest  in  vocational  training 
has  strengthened  the  cause  of  moral  education  for  it  has  drawn 
attention  to  the  relation  of  the  school  to  life  and  to  the  moral 
obligations  of  efficiency. 

In  Europe  interest  has  developed  rapidly.  The  Moral  Edu- 
cation League69  was  organized  in  London  in  1901.  It  has  a 
definite  propaganda  of  instituting  instruction  in  morals  in  the 
schools,  especially  by  the  use  of  story  and  history  material. 
The  First  International  Moral  Education  Congress  was  held 
at  London,  September,  1908,  and  the  second  at  The  Hague  in 
August,  1912.  The  two-volume  report  of  the  first  congress  is 
an  especially  valuable  contribution.70  We  are  fortunate  in  this 
country  in  that  moral  training  is  not  complicated  by  the  re- 
ligious controversy.71  Back  of  our  development  has  been  a 
profound  moral  awakening,  a  quickening  of  the  public  con- 
science, a  recognition,  tardy  but  sweeping,  of  the  futility  of 
education  that  does  not  issue  in  competency  to  the  moral  strain 
and  the  social  ideals  of  life.72 

One  of  the  most  important  advance  steps  has  been  the 
recognition  of  the  necessity  of  including  work  in  morals  in  the 
professional  training  of  the  teacher.  Courses  in  subjects  cal- 
culated to  prepare  the  teacher  for  this  work  are  now  found  in 
practically  all  the  important  professional  schools.73  They  are 
at  their  best  in  the  Departments  of  Education  in  the  large  Uni- 
versities. The  intimate  relations  of  this  work  to  the  whole 
field,  of  religious  education  is  indicated  in  the  fact  that,  for 
example,  the  "Department  of  Education"  at  the  University  of 
Minnesota  offers  courses  in  the  Psychology  of  Religion,  Re- 
ligious Education  and  History  of  Religious  Education.  Colum- 
bia University  offers  five  courses  in  Religious  Education  under 

68The  index  to  publications  of  the  R.  E.  A.  has  212  references  to  the  public 
school  problem  up  to  February,  1912,  since  that  time  over  100  pages  on  the  subject  have 
been  published  by  the  Association. 

«9Has  issued  several  valuable  Syllabi  of  moral  instruction  (see  Religious  Edu- 
cation IV,  page  202)  and  a  series  of  volumes,  including  graded  Lesson  Books.  For 
further  information  address  The  Moral  Education  League,  6  York  Bldg.,  Adelphi,  Lon- 
don, W.  C.,  England. 

TOMoral  Instruction  and  Training  in  Schools,"  edited  by  M.  Sadler.     (Longmans.) 

7iQn  the  complexity  of  the  English  situation  and  the  many  solutions  proposed. 
See  "The  Religious  Question  in  Public  Education,"  Riley  et  al.  (Longmans,  1911.) 

72Qn  the  significance  to  this  awakening  to  religious  education.  See  H.  C.  King, 
"Moral  and  Religious  Challenge  of  our  Times."  (Macmillan,  1911.) 

73ln  1911  Professor  William  C.  Bagley  found  courses  in  Ethics  in  70  per  cent  of 
the  Colleges  and  Universities  and  in  22  per  cent  of  the  Normal  Schools.  See  his  report 
on  "Training  Public  School  Teachers"  in  Religious  Education,  Vol.  V,  pp.  612-640. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  23 


Professor  Goe.  A  very  large  number  of  the  summer  schools 
for  teachers  have  every  year  lecture  courses  on  Moral  and  Re- 
ligious Education. 

It  must  not  be  assumed  that  the  moralization  of  the  public 
school  is  complete.  We  still  have  to  contend  with  (a)  those  to 
whom  moral  training  means  simply  a  schedule  of  lessons  on 
Ethics.74  (b)  those  who  are  dully  content  with  the  informa- 
tional aim  and  with  professional  mechanization  of  the  schools. 
We  cannot  fail  to  note  that  although  much  has  been  accom- 
plished in  public  education,  it  does  not  equal  in  thoroughness 
the  re-organization  which  is  now  taking  place  in  church  edu- 
cation. 

VI.   THE  COLLEGES   AND   UNIVERSITIES. 

The  past  decade  has  been  a  period  of  heart-searching  in 
the  colleges  and  of  questioning  as  to  higher  education  in  the 
public  mind.  The  target  of  criticism  and  the  butt  of  witticism, 
the  college  has  been  quietly  cleansing  and  reorganizing  her 
own  house.  We  stand  so  in  the  midst  of  radical  readjustments 
that  perspective  is  impossible  and  any  attempted  interpretation 
may  be  wholly  inaccurate.  But  as  to  the  general  directions  in 
which  newer  adjustments  are  facing  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
Changes  in  curricula,  new  plans  of  organization,  increased  at- 
tention to  student  activities  and  welfare,  discussion  of  athletics 
and  recent  studies  of  the  real  nature  of  students,  are  but  a  few 
indications  of  a  definite  recognition  of  responsibility  for  and 
purpose  toward  the  student  as  a  person.  In  this  country  there 
has  been  a  decided  reaction  from  the  German  conception  of 
the  function  of  institutions  of  higher  education.  Time  may 
show  that  an  American  type  has  been  developing  under  the  im- 
pulse of  the  religious  ideals  of  early  education  in  this  country 
and  based  on  our  conception  of  education  in  general  as  the 
directed  evolution  of  behaving  organisms  and  as  having  the 
aim  of  social  efficiency.  At  any  rate,  a  large  number  of  edu- 
cators is  earnestly  seeking  for  means  and  methods  of  increased 
efficiency,  in  higher  education,  for  the  development  of  personal 
values  and  social  usefulness  in  the  students.  There  is  a  new 
conscience  for  character  and  for  social  usefulness  in  the  uni- 
versities. It  manifests  itself  in  the  topics  under  discussion  in 
conferences  of  educators,  in  their  personal  inquiries,  in  the 

74This  seems  to  be  the  tendency  of  the  N.  E.  A.  Report.  The  opposite  view  is 
well  presented  in  Professor  Coe's  paper,  "Virtue  and  the  Virtues,"  Religious  Educa- 
tion, Vol.  VI,  page  485. 


24  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


heartiness  of  their  co-operation  with  agencies  of  the  higher 
life.  In  all  the  field  of  religious  education,  the  most  promising 
development  has  been  this  general  acceptance  by  educators  of 
a  real  religious  aim  in  higher  education. 

Our  colleges  are  set  for  the  culture  of  souls — not  simply 
because  they  cannot  avoid  the  spiritual  vision  in  history,  liter- 
ature and  science,  but  because  they  have  the  spiritual  purpose 
of  developing  men  and  women  as  persons  to  the  fulness  of  their 
powers  for  the  sake  of  their  contribution  to  the  personal  wel- 
fare and  progress  of  all  society.75 

What  specifically,  are  some  of  the  evidences  of  this 
change?  1.  The  definite  acceptance,  in  a  large  number  of  in- 
stances, of  responsibility  for  the  personal  welfare  of  students, 
as  seen  in  vigorous  attempts  to  control  community  conditions, 
the  closer  regulation,  especially  for  moral  ends,  of  conditions 
of  living  in  dormitories  and  boarding  houses,76  more  exact 
records  of  student's  character  manifestations  in  order  that  the 
dangerous  may  be  eliminated,  and  the  promise  of  a  revival  of 
academic  conscience  in  respect  to  athletics.  While  the  prob- 
lems of  fraternities  may  have  become  acute  on  account  of  their 
interference  with  academic  mechanisms,  there  has  developed 
a  sense  of  the  social,  and  therefore  moral  and  religious  dangers 
of  fraternities  and  the  most  hopeful  signs  all  point  to  improve- 
ment in  the  direction  of  closer  official  and  personal  oversight 
in  order  to  secure  a  better  moral  tone  and  to  use  the  potencies 
of  fraternities  for  personal  higher  welfare.77  Of  a  more  direct 
character  we  may  specify,  the  greater  encouragement  given 
to  student  voluntary  religious  organization  and  especially  to 
the  expression  of  religion  through  student  activity.  This  ten- 
dency is  seen  in  the  physical  provision  which  the  university 
often  makes  for  the  higher-life  institutions,  not  only  in  suitable 
chapels78  but  in  unions  and  special  buildings  in  which  the  re- 
ligious and  social  life  finds  a  center  and  home.  In  the  work 
of  Christian  Associations,  the  attitude  of  university  men  is 
changing  from  one  of  hostile  criticism  to  one  of  developmental 
critical  co-operation. 

More  easily  apprehended  and  certainly  of  prime  impor- 
tance, is  the  progress  made  in  the  introduction  into  college  cur- 

75See  the  papers  by  college  men  in  "Religious  Education,"  Vol.  VII,  pages  348-392. 

76See  the  discussions  in  "Religious  Education,"  Vol.  IV,  pages  34-72. 

77See  article  in  "Religious  Education,"  Vol.  IV,  pp.  323-342. 

78ln  1912,  an  inquiry  amongst  116  colleges  and  universities  of  the  front  rank  in 
the  United  States  showed  that  regular  daily  chapel  services  were  held  in  107  institu- 
tions; and  of  these  attendance  was  voluntary  at  39  and  required  at  68. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  25 


ricula  of  suitable  courses  in  the  Bible,  in  religion,  in  various 
aspects  of  religious  phenomena,  as  the  psychology  of  religion, 
and  in  religious  education.70  State  Universities  are  coming  to 
appreciate  that  such  courses,  on  a  strictly  scientific  basis,  not 
only  do  not  at  all  conflict  with  their  proper  position  of  freedom 
from  sectarian  bias  or  control,  but  that,  since  religion  is  an  in- 
separable integer  in  human  experience,  a  fact  in  human  life 
and  a  force  in  society,  a  knowledge  of  the  facts  is  essential  to 
education.  Further,  the  level  of  instruction  in  the  University 
has  been,  under  the  scientific  ideal,  lifted  so  far  and  clear 
above  prejudices  and  personal  controversies  that  it  is  evidently 
possible  so  to  train  the  student  in  the  knowledge  of  these  facts 
that  no  man's  enlightened  conscience  can  be  offended. 

The  past  ten  years  has  witnessed  a  complete  revolution  of 
opinion  as  to  the  character  of  state  universities.  We  have 
passed  from  the  day  when  any  speaker  could  win  applause  at 
a  church  gathering  by  flings  at  the  "hotbeds  of  infidelity  in  the 
godless  universities."  The  new  era  of  confidence  is  due  not 
alone  to  the  enlightenment  of  the  churches  but  equally  to  the 
enlarged  vision  of  educators.  An  age  in  which  we  think  in 
common  terms  of  religion  and  science  makes  it  possible  and 
imperative  for  university  men  to  have  a  share  in  religious  life, 
to  hold  religious  responsibility  for  student  life  as  consonant 
with  academic  responsibility  and  for  the  people  of  the  churches 
to  appreciate  and  use  the  spiritual  values  of  educational  agen- 
cies. No  change  is  more  significant  than  that  by  which  religion 
has  come  to  have  a  fitting  place  in  state  universities,  a  place 
which  is  the  more  notable  because  it  is  unofficial  and  voluntary. 
The  permanent  valuable  activities  for  the  religious  education 
of  students  at  state  institutions  are  being  conducted  by  the 
university  officers.  Christian  Associations  and  University  pas- 
torates are  not  patronizingly  approved  by  presidents;  they  are 
recognized,  wherever  efficiently  conducted,  as  valuable,  indis- 
pensable, co-operating  forces.  Religious  education  is  not  tol- 
erated, it  is  encouraged,  and  as  far  as  the  law  permits,  its 
work  is  sustained  and  furnished  with  necessary  facilities. 

7»In  1912-13  College  year  in  117  colleges  and  universities  (including  14  state 
universities)  reporting,  the  following  courses  were  maintained  as  part  of  the  liberal 
arts  work  in  the  following  number  of  institutions : 

Biblical  History  and  Literature 94 

Religion,  Comparative   . . 47 

Religion,  Philosophy  of 52 

Ethics   97 

Psychology  of  Religion 32 

Religious  Education,  Methods  of 36 


26  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


While  the  universities  proper  have  been  enlarging  their 
sphere  in  religion  the  colleges  have  been  intensifying  their 
work,  co-ordinating  it  to  scientific  work  in  other  departments 
and  relating  it  to  the  life  needs  of  students. 

First,  there  are  more  courses  in  the  Bible  in  colleges  than 
a  decade  ago;  more  colleges  are  seriously  attempting  this  work. 
There  now  remain  only  a  few  obtaining  students  under  the 
false  pretense  of  promising  in  the  catalog  biblical  work  while 
committing  this  work  to  voluntary  agencies  or  to  local  pastors. 

The  curriculum  in  the  Bible  has  been  extended  over  a 
greater  number  of  subjects  and  periods  of  study  in  many  in- 
stitutions. 

Second,  the  grade  of  work  has  greatly  improved.  A 
higher  and  better  prepared  type  of  instructor  is  demanded. 
A  large  number  of  well  qualified  young  men  and  young  women, 
especially  trained  for  this  work,  have  gone  into  the  colleges. 
The  demand  is  today  more  for  women  than  for  men,  and  the 
efficiency  of  the  work  of  many  of  the  women  stands  very  high. 
The  character  of  instruction  has  improved  accordingly.  It  is 
now  usually  modern,  scientific,  and  as  to  biblical  literature, 
historical.  The  office  of  the  R.  E.  A.  is  almost  constantly  re- 
ceiving letters  from  college  instructors  asking  for  recommenda- 
tions of  suitable  text  books,  more  particularly  for  the  Junior 
college  years,  and  always  insisting  that  these  shall  be  strictly 
of  the  modern  viewpoint. 

Third,  the  materials  of  study  in  religion  have  been  adapted 
to  life  needs.  On  one  side  many  college  instructors  have  classes 
in  the  practical  problems  of  religious  thinking  and  living. 
On  the  other,  there  are  now  forty-eight  colleges  with  one  or 
more  courses  designed  specifically  to  fit  young  men  and  women 
for  usefulness  in  the  church  and  other  religious  agencies,  train- 
ing them  as  proficient  lay  workers  in  religious  education.  In 
four  instances  this  work  is  a  special  department  in  the  institu- 
tion. 

On  a  poll  of  colleges  on  the  question,  "Should  higher  in- 
stitutions provide  similar  opportunities  for  religious  workers 
to  those  provided  for  doctors,  etc."  64  answered  yes,  9  no,  and 
28  returned  qualified  answers.80 

To  summarize  the  general  trend  in  higher  education  from 


the  report  of  a  "Commission  to  Investigate  the  Preparation  of  Religious 
Leaders  in  Colleges  and  Universities,"  1912,  presented  by  Prof.  Edwin  D.  Starbuck, 
Religious  Education,  Vol.  VII,  page  329. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  21 


the  institutional  side:  Probably  there  is  no  sign  so  full  of 
promise  as  the  development  of  a  spirit  for  religious  education 
in  the  universities  and  colleges.  To  many  of  the  most  influ- 
ential educators  the  word  "religious"  has  become  the  one  de- 
scribing their  ideal  of  education,  the  development  of  an  effi- 
cient religious  person  their  aim.  Such  a  purpose  carried  out 
with  youth,  with  the  leaders  of  tomorrow,  will  saturate  down 
through  all  our  social  life  and  activity.  On  the  other  hand, 
as  a  definite  expression  of  this  spirit,  the  colleges  are  designedly 
developing  religious  leaders;  they  are  preparing  youth  for 
efficiency  in  religious  service,  for  the  interpretation  of  religion 
in  terms  of  modern  life  and  the  organization  of  that  life  in 
terms  of  religion. 

There  has  also  been  a  marked  development  in  the  extra- 
mural agencies  for  religious  education.  I.  The  Student  Asso- 
ciations. Apart  from  all  statistics  of  student  enrollment,  con- 
fessedly often  misleading,  Student  Associations  have  been  at- 
tempting a  program  increasingly  educational.  The  reports  of 
Commissions  on  Voluntary  and  Curriculum  Bible  Study  being 
presented  at  this  convention  indicate  the  recognition  of  room 
for  improvement  and  also  the  seriousness  with  which  the  need 
is  being  met.  A  comparison  of  the  text  books  now  in  rather 
general  use  with  those  provided  a  decade  ago  show  marked 
progress.  Further  the  student  association  has  at  last  recog- 
nized its  peculiar  opportunity  —  to  become  the  center  of  student 
social  life,  interpreting  that  life  in  high  terms,  and  the  agency 
through  which  the  student  may  find  a  normal,  active  expression 
of  his  religion. 

Student  workers  have  begun  to  study  students,  to  recog- 
nize that,  while  they  have  many  characteristics  in  common 
with  the  rest  of  human  kind,  their  special  community  life 
means  at  their  age,  special  moral  and  intellectual  needs.  The 
Bible  class  and  prayer  meeting  that  would,  perhaps,  be  normal 
to  village  youth  is  on  longer  offered  to  the  college  community. 
In  its  place  there  is  a  healthy  tendency  to  offer  classes  for  the 
discussion  of  life's  real  problems,  classes  in  the  Bible  as  it  is 
and  the  religious  life  bible  we  are  making  today  by  our  so- 
ciety.81 v 


1903-1913  students  in  mission  classes  at  colleges  increased  from  5,000 
to  36,850.  Note  such  text  books  011  Social  Subjects  as  the  series  prepared  and  pub- 
lished by  Rev.  R.  H.  Edwards,  124  E.  28th  St.,  N.  Y.,  which  were  first  used  at  the 
University  of  Wisconsin. 


28  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


But  other  agencies  have  entered  the  field,  at  least  so  far 
as  the  state  universities  are  concerned.  2.  University  pastors. 
The  various  church  communions  have  within  the  past  eight 
years  been  quickened  to  a  responsibility  for  their  youth  in  the 
public  universities.  So  far  as  statistics  are  ascertainable,  there 
are  at  this  time,  in  the  13  larger  state  universities  60,046  stu- 
dents enrolled — not  counting  over  5,000  in  three  agricultural 
colleges.  Less  than  ten  years  ago  the  church  communions  be- 
gan to.  realize  that  a  community  of  from  five  to  six  thousand 
young  people,  as  at  Wisconsin,  Illinois  and  Michigan,  consisted 
a  field  of  religious  responsibility,  a  promise  of  religious  po- 
tentiality, if  only  these  young  people  could  be  wisely  reached. 

The  development  of  plans  to  minister  to  the  student  com- 
munities came  in  response  to  the  appeals  of  university  men. 

In  1903  a  special  committee  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  recommended  that  a  committee  be  ap- 
pointed to  investigate  the  conditions  and  the  best  methods  of 
work  for  the  young  people  in  state  universities.  The  subject 
remained  before  the  Assembly  until  1906  when  the  Board  of 
Education  was  authorized  to  forward  plans  for  the  religious 
needs  of  students.82  Meanwhile  individual  experiments  of 
varied  character  had  been  tried  and  plans  had  been  advo- 
cated.83 The  Board  of  Education  organized  for  vigorous  work, 
and  employing  a  special  secretary,84  securing  competent  men 
for  work  as  university  pastors,  it  found  its  way  into  the  uni- 
versity field.  At  this  time  the  Presbyterian  Board  has  eleven 
men  engaged  exclusively  in  pastoral  work  with  students,85  and, 
in  addition,  ten  pastors  of  churches  giving  themselves  to  this 
work. 

In  like  manner  the  Baptist,  Methodist,  Congregationalists, 
Lutherans,  Unitarians,  Episcopal  and  Roman  Catholic  have 
installed  pastors  and  ministers  at  practically  all  the  larger  state 
institutions.  In  1908  there  was  organized  at  a  meeting  held 
in  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.,  the  body  of  "Church  Workers  in  State 
Universities,"  holding  annual  conferences.86  The  university 
pastors  have  not  only  held  themselves  responsible  for  pastoral 
work  but  they  have  conducted  classes  in  the  Bible,  in  religion, 

82Minutes  of  General  Assembly,  1906,  page  53. 

sspor  a  list  of  plans,  many  of  which  were  ephemeral,  see  Minutes  of  General 
Assembly,  1904,  pp.  158-104. 

84Richard  C.  Hughes,  D.D.     Appointed  in  1910. 

85At  the  Universities  of  California,  Illinois,  Maryland,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Michigan, 
Montana,  Nebraska,  Ohio,  Wisconsin  and  State  College  of  Agriculture  at  Ames,  Iowa. 

seusually  reported  in  Religious  Education,  as  at  Vol.  VI,  page  222  ff. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  29 


in  methods  of  religious  work  and  in  social  service.  A  splendid 
spirit  of  co-operation  has  prevailed  between  these  workers  and 
the  university  authorities. 

Church  Work  at  state  universities  has  led  to  the  erection 
of  special  buildings  for  student  life  in  charge  of  the  student 
pastors,  as  at  Michigan,  Illinois,  and  Kansas.  At  Illinois  and 
at  Pennsylvania  State  College  special  churches  have  been 
erected  by  the  Presbyterians. 

Another  interesting  development  has  been  the  establish- 
ment of  special  schools,  known  as  "Bible  Chairs,"  at  the  state 
universities  by  the  Disciples  communion.  Within  the  past  7 
years  the  Woman's  Board  of  Missions  has  established  Bible 
chairs  at  Kansas,  Texas,  Michigan,  Virginia,  Missouri  and  Ore- 
gon. These  are  usually  provided  with  special  buildings  in 
which  courses  quite  similar  to  those  in  theological  seminaries 
are  given.  The  work  is  usually  correlated  to  the  curriculum 
of  the  university  certain  studies  being  duly  accredited  while  in 
some  instances  exchanges  of  instruction  are  arranged,  as  at 
Missouri,  in  the  department  of  sociology. 

A  unique  plan  of  co-operation  prevails  at  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  where  all  the  church  work  is  unified  under 
that  of  the  Christian  associations. 

VII.   CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATIONS. 

Amongst  the  informal  agencies  of  education  the  Christian 
Associations  have  developed  remarkable  prominence.  In  the 
past  decade  the  phrase  "religious  education"  has  come  per- 
manently into  the  vocabulary  current  in  these  institutions.87 

The  emergence  of  the  religious  educational  viewpoint  is 
well  shown  in  the  declarations  of  the  quintennial  conferences 
on  "Religious  Work  for  Men,"  particularly  the  statements 
made  in  1907  and  1912,  the  latter  reading,  "As  the  Association 
enlarged  its  scope  of  effort,  the  materials  for  a  broader  system 
of  religious  education  were  gradually  assembled  by  the  local 
Associations  in  the  form  of  life-problem  classes,  the  consider- 
ations of  personal  and  community  hygiene,  the  study  of  social 
problems  and  needs,  the  wider  study  of  missions  and  an  in- 
creased co-operation  in  the  missionary  enterprise  and  other 
developments."  Incidentally,  this  would  be  a  good  program 

^"Writing  in  "American  Youth,"  December,  1912,  Edgar  M.  Robinson  says:  "The 
Associations,  generally  speaking,  shied  at  the  expression  'religious  education/  but 
gradually  lost  their  fear  of  it  and  formally  embraced  it!" 


30  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


for  many  Sunday  schools.  And,  again,  from  the  same  confer- 
ence, "All  the  work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
without  unfair  use  of  terminology,  might  be  called  religious 
education,"  and  "in  order  that  religious  education  should  have 
its  deserved  place,  Association  leaders  should  inform  them- 
selves regaring  its  significance  and  scope  and  the  present  need 
for  its  increased  recognition."88 

It  stands  for  the  most  distinctive  development  in  the  Asso- 
ciation's policy  and  marks  the  wide  divergence  of  methods  in 
America  from  those  in  Europe.  The  ideal  of  religious  educa- 
tion is  expressed  in  the  last  "Annual  Survey"  of  the  men's  work 
which  says,  "In  a  very  real  sense  all  the  religious  activities  of 
the  Association  make  contributions  toward  the  religious  edu- 
cation of  men  and  boys."89  And,  again,  "To  find  out  how  to 
reach  and  win  and  train  older  boys  and  men  and  pass  back  the 
results  to  the  local  church  will  be  an  increasing  measure  the 
chief  task  of  the  modern  Association."90  There  is  a  cumulative 
tendency  in  both  types  of  Associations  to  organize  all  religious 
work  on  a  scientific  basis,  especially  as  to  the  recognition  of 
modern  psychology  and  pedagogy.  This  is  well  indicated  in 
the  professional  training  of  Association  workers;  the  schools 
for  men,  Chicago  and  Springfield  and  the  National  Training 
School  of  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  New  York.  All  have  special  courses 
in  Religious  Education,  while  the  Chicago  school  has  a  full  pro- 
fessor in  charge  and  all  students  are  required  to  take  a  certain 
part  of  this  work. 

The  International  Committee  of  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  1912  en- 
gaged a  new  officer  to  be  known  as  "The  Secretary  of  Religious 
Education." 91  Unusual  attention  was  given  to  the  need  of 
training  in  Religious  Education  at  the  last  Religious  Work 
Conference  at  Atlantic  City,  in  February,  1912. 

There  has  been  a  movement  from  scattered  and  unrelated 
Bible  classes  to  attempt  to  organize  a  comprehensive  curricula 
of  Religious  Education.92  In  1912  there  were  2,146  Association 
classes  using  the  International  Association  courses  and  901 
using  original  courses. 

ssQuotations  from  pp.  9,  49,  51,  of  "Principles  and  Methods  of  Religious  Work 
for  Men  and  Boys."  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Press.  1912. 

89Annual  Survey  for  1912,  page  29.    Y.  M.  C.  A.  Press. 

9"op.  cit.  p.  20. 

9iM.  A.  Honline,  Ph.D.,  formerly  Director  of  Religious  Education  for  the  United 
Brethren  Church. 

»2See  "A  Study  of  a  Curriculum  for  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,"  by  Professor  C.  W.  Votaw 
at  page  251  in  "Education  and  National  Character,"  the  R.  E.  A.,  1908. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  31 


The  General  Secretary  reports  a  deepening  interest  in 
graded  and  progressive  types  of  courses.  A  special  commis- 
sion has  been  appointed  consisting  of  Association  and  Sunday- 
school  leaders  "To  study  existing  courses"  and  discover  ma- 
terial provided  by  other  agencies. 

Mr.  Fred  S.  Goodman  is  authority  for  the  statement  that 
the  ratio  of  increase  in  value  of  Association's  buildings  is  sur- 
passed by  the  ratio  of  increase  in  Bible  students  in  the  last 
decade.  The  statistics  for  1912  show  a  total  of  over  4,300 
Bible  classes  with  an  enrollment  of  over  80,000  in  all  kinds  of 
the  men's  Associations;  and  in  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  1,409  classes 
with  an  enrollment  of  30,396.  To  the  Bible  classes  can  be 
added  the  classes  in  Missions,  Teacher  Training,  Social  Serv- 
ice and  like  problems.  The  Teacher  Training  classes  have 
been  an  especially  valuable  development  though  of  very  recent 
origin.  In  1912,  126  Associations  reported  178  Teacher  Train- 
ing classes  with  3,051  students. 

There  is  an  increasing  tendency  to  think  of  religious  edu- 
cation as  a  process  of  developing  Christian  manhood.  The 
aim  is  more  distinctly  that  of  efficient  religious  character  and 
service  with  the  result  that  there  is  less  emphasis  on  bookish 
studies  and  more  upon  expressional  activities  with  a  widening 
of  the  curriculum  to  include  social  duties,  ethics,  life  problems, 
etc.93  Few  things  have  contributed  more  directly  to  these 
results  than  the  "Men  and  Religion  Movement."  Originated  in 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  it  brought  these  Associations  face  to  face  with 
civic  needs  and  especially  with  the  demands  for  a  unified  pro- 
gram of  service.  It  followed  after  the  special  studies  which  the 
Association  had  been  making  and  on  which  a  commission  had 
reported  on  "Relations  of  Young  Men  and  Boys  in  the 
Church."  94  It  has  resulted  in  a  wider  conception  of  the  Asso- 
ciation as  an  opportunity  for  a  directed  expressional  develop- 
ment of  the  religious  life.  As  suggested  in  the  year  book  for 
1912,  in  an  increasing  degree,  "The  Association  building  will 
become  a  training  school  for  leaders  in  boys'  work,  athletics, 
Bible  study,  evangelism  and  social  service,  who  do  their  work 
in  or  through  the  local  churches.  Every  boys'  or  men's  Bible 
class,  every  chapter  of  a  neighborhood,  every  club  with  a  par- 

»3See  for  example  "Life  Problems,"  Doggett  et  al.;  "Life  Questions  of  High 
School  Boys,"  J.  W.  Jenks;  "Round  Table  Discussions,"  Walter  M.  Wood;  "Social 
Teachings  of  Jesus,"  J.  W.  Jcnks. 

94Rcport  of  the  Commission  presented  at  Omaha,  June  1,  1909. 


32  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


ticular  program  will  reckon  on  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  as  a  friend  and 
strong  ally.95 

One  of  the  most  striking  developments,  and  also  one  of  the 
most  promising,  has  been  the  awakening  to  the  importance  of 
work  with  the  entire  life  of  manhood.  It  was  customary  for 
a  long  time  to  put  the  boys'  work  into  basements  or  into  a  back 
corner  of  the  men's  building.  Now  special  buildings  are  being 
erected  for  boys.  809  Associations  report  some  work  especially 
for  these  classes  with  112,000  members  of  whom  72,000  are  in 
school  and  42,000  enrolled  in  Bible  classes.  The  character  of 
the  work  with  boys  is  indicated  by  (1)  special  training  of  boys' 
classes;  (2)  the  appointment  of  special  Boys'  Work  Secretaries 
in  the  general  field,96  preparation  of  special  studies  on  boy 
problems,97  the  work  of  special  commissions.98 

As  to  progress  in  the  Young  Women's  Associations  those 
who  are  familiar  with  the  splendidly  efficient  work  so  quietly 
carried  forward  know  that  it  organized  with  the  educational 
ideal  in  predominance,  that  the  instruction,  both  in  the  Bible 
and  in  the  religious  life,  steadily  becomes  more  scientific  and 
modern  The  last  evidence  of  progress  is  increased  standards 
of  training  and  investments  in  training  of  workers. 

Best  of  all  evidences  of  progress  in  both  the  men's  and 
women's  Associations  is  the  recent  search  after  improved  meth- 
ods and  the  openness  of  mind  toward  new  aspects  of  truth. 
In  both  Associations  there  is  a  remarkable  record  of  aggressive 
adaptation  to  development  needs  and  developing  ideals. 

VIII.    SOCIAL  ORGANIZATIONS. 

Last,  we  may  trace  progress  in  religious  education  in  the 
general  social  organizations  and  movements  of  our  times,  in 
social  settlements,  playgrounds,  civic  leagues,  recreation  cen- 
ters, the  rural  betterment  movements  and  the  development  and 

»5Year  Book,  1912,  p.  38. 

9«E.  M.  Robinson,  Frank  H.  T.  Ritchie,  C.  C.  Robinson,  David  R.  Porter  (for  High 
and  Preparatory  schools),  R.  A.  Waite. 

97"Boys'  Work  in  the  Local  Church"  in  Messages  of  Men  and  Religion  Movement, 
Vol.  V,  Association  Press. 

^Commission,  1912,  "The  relation  of  the  Sunday  school  to  adolescent  boys  and 
girls  in  educational  institutions."  Commission  1912-13  to  report  at  a  special  assembly 
at  Culver,  Indiana,  May  17  to  30: 

1.  "The  Work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  with  Boys  Within  the 
Association  Buildings,"  F.  A.  Crosby,  Chicago,  Chairman. 

2.  "The  Work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asssociation  with  Boys  Outside  of 
the  Association  Buildings,"  C.  K.  Calhoun,  Montreal,  Chairman. 

3.  "The  Work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  and  Training  Boys  in 
the  Equalizing  of  Opportunity,"  Peter  Roberts,  Ph.D.,  New  York,  Chairman. 

4.  "The  Work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  Among  Boys  and  the 
Content  and  Methods  of  Religious  Education,"  L.  Wilbur  Messer,  Chicago,  Chairman. 

5.  "The  Work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in  Training  Leaders  for 
Service  with  Boys,"  George  Walter  Fiske,  Oberlin,  Chairman. 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  33 


regulation  of  popular  amusements.  The  educational  potencies 
of  play  and  social  life  have  been  newly  recognized  on  a  general 
scale;"11  we  have  come  to  think  of  them  in  educational  terms 
and  to  evaluate  them  for  educational  efficiency.  The  street, 
the  playground,1"0  the  social  hour,  the  theatre,  the  concert  have 
today  a  place  as  legitimate  in  the  program  of  education  as  the 
lecture  and  the  recitation.  The  moving  picture  has  a  place  in 
the  church.101  We  regard  them  as  educational  factors  simply 
because  education  now  embraces  all  of  life;  it  develops  a  whole 
being. 

But,  further,  we  have  recognized  the  religious  importance 
of  social  welfare,  amusement  and  recreation.102  We  think  of 
them  in  terms  of  character-making  and  judge  them  by  spiritual 
results. 

In  the  past  ten  years  the  emphasis  has  passed  from  char- 
itable relief  to  constructive  social  welfare.  The  phrase  "social 
service"  has  become  generally  current,  and  social  service  has 
received  an  educational  emphasis.  Our  social  consciousness 
is  made  vital  and  keen  by  our  sense  of  the  higher,  spiritual 
values  of  life.  Welfare  work  no  longer  ends  in  a  blind  alley 
of  physical  ideals;  it  looks  beyond  the  agencies  of  sanitation 
and  wages  to  the  product  of  human  personality,  to  a  society 
in  which  all  the  conditions  of  living  must  be  the  best  possible 
because  they  constitute  the  soil  of  the  soul.  Social  service  is 
sustained  today,  not  alone  by  broken-hearted  pity  for  the  tur- 
moil and  black  night  of  other  lives  but  by  the  hope,  the  faith 
that  life  can  and  life  does  move  forward  out  of  the  night,  that 
every  life  may  grow  and  that  we  are  learning  the  laws  of  their 
growth.  Social  service  has  today  an  educational  program 
motived  by  a  growing  sense  of  religious  values. 

"Popular  Recreation  and  Public  Morality,"  Guliek.  American  Unitarian 
Association. 

"The  Morality  of  Social  Pleasures,"  Fowler.     (Longmans,  1911.) 

"Education  for  Right  Use  of  Leisure,"  Chubb.  Religions  Education,  Vol.  V1T, 
p.  C99. 

"Playground  as  Educational  Agency,"  J.  Lee.    Ethical  Culture  Society  Pamphlet. 

i°"Note  the  valuable  work  of  "The  Playground  Association,"  1  Madison  Ave., 
New  York,  with  its  marked  educational  tendencies,  especially  in  the  proceedings  and 
other  publications  of  this  organization. 

""Pamphlet,  "Religious  Possibilities  of  the  Moving  Picture,"  Herbert  A.  Jump. 

See  also  Religious   Education,  Vol.   IV,   344. 

The  following  churches  use  the  film  machines: 

First  Congregational,  Oakland,  Cal. 

Christ  Episcopal,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

Salem   Congregational,   Los  Angeles,   Cal. 

Grace  Methodist,  Worcester,  Mass. 

Bethany  Presbyterian,  Philadelphia. 

St.  Anthony  (Catholic),  Fitchburg,  Mass. 

Universalist  Church,  Joliet,  111. 

io2«The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets,"  Jane  Addams.     Macmillan,  1909. 


34  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


Note  how  the  word  "social"  is  scattered  through  modern 
pedagogical  and  educational  literature.  Think  of  its  spiritual 
significance,  how  it  has  come  to  mean  so  much  more  than 
sociability,  to  include  efficiency  and  sacrificial  service  and  con- 
sider whether  after  all  educational  ideals  are  not  being  satur- 
ated with  spiritual  concepts. 

Consider  the  incoming  of  the  religious  spirit  into  our  po- 
litical life,  in  insistence  on  moral  ideals,  on  high  standards  of 
conduct,  in  a  developing  sense  of  social  responsibility,  in  the 
turning  of  the  ear  to  the  cry  of  the  man  lower  down.  Notice 
the  use  of  new  terms,  new  to  political  platforms  and  most  re- 
markable because  uttered  often  in  the  glow  of  deep  feeling,  of 
sincere  human  passion;  the  claims  of  social  justice,  the  in- 
sistence on  human  rights  and  the  demand  that  life  shall  mean 
more  than  the  opportunity  to  labor,  it  shall  mean  the  chance  to 
live.  Some  educational  processes  have  been  active  on  very  un- 
promising material  here  and  men  are  beginning  to  take  life 
itself  increasingly  in  terms  of  education  with  a  religious  aim. 
We  tend,  slowly  but  surely  to  think  of  and  to  test  not  only 
homes  and  schools  and  churches,  but  factories  and  stores  and 
city  streets  in  terms  of  their  suitability  to  human  growth,  by 
whether  they  make  the  whole  of  life  move  into  higher  levels, 
whether,  in  the  measure  of  their  powers  they  are  agencies  of 
human  promotion  or  demotion,  whether  they  are  with  or  work- 
ing against  religious  education. 

The  religious  spirit  of  this  larger  program  of  social  educa- 
tion has  not  been  confined  to  settlements  and  groups  of  social 
workers.  It  has  saturated  the  thinking  of  educators;  it  is  in- 
creasingly dominating  the  spirit  of  the  churches.  The  schools 
exist  to  prepare  youth  for  competent  social  living  and  they 
accept  enlarging  responsibility  for  the  social  welfare  of  the 
lives  of  students.  Every  attempt  at  social  development  has  a 
moral  basis  and  a  moral  aim.  The  schools  have  in  some  in- 
stances caught  the  vision  of  society  as  moving  toward  a  de- 
mocracy of  the  spirit.  A  similar  movement  in  the  development 
of  social  responsibility  has  brought  the  churches  and  the 
schools  into  the  same  field  of  endeavor.  It  is  a  sign  of  no 
small  significance — indicating  how  deeply  the  newer  ideals 
of  education  affect  us  all — that  before  we  have  seriously  at- 
tempted the  correlation  of  the  courses  of  instruction  in 
churches  and  schools  we  have  already  in  many  instances  ef- 
fected correlation  in  practical  social  education.  Parent-teacher 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  35 


organizations  meet  in  churches.  Christian  Association  officers 
direct  the  play  and  recreation  work  in  schools.  But  the  more 
important  co-ordination  is  that  which  comes  unofficially  by 
the  voluntary  exchange  of  school-  and  church-workers  in  the 
enterprises  of  playgrounds,  Boy  Scouts,  moving-picture  regula- 
tion, school  theatricals.  It  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  move- 
ment for  a  school  social-center  to  be  born  in  a  church. 

We  must  take  into  our  view  and  recognize  the  religious 
educational  value  of  every  attempt  to  give  a  child  all  his  world. 
We  would  labor  almost  in  vain  holding  forth  the  flame  of  life 
if  the  eyes  are  dull  with  childhood's  sad  toil,  if  the  life  is  shut 
in  by  squalid  walls;  in  vain  do  we  appeal  to  moral  heroism 
when  all  the  vital  powers  are  sapped  by  malnutrition  or  by 
vice.  When  the  city  opens  parks  and  tears  down  tenements, 
when  the  state  protects  child  life  it  means  that  men  set  human 
values  first,  that  a  public  conscience  demands  the  right  of  lives 
to  develop  and  tfie  foundations  are  made  possible  for  the  house 
not  made  with  hands. 

In  the  light  of  such  progress  who  dare  turn  back  or  even 
doubt  that  the  eternal  purpose  runs  steadily  forward  and  we 
needs  must  follow?  Who  seeing  what  yesterday's  toil  and  sow- 
ing has  brought  forward  can  count  any  cost  too  great  for  to- 
day's service? 


34  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


Note  how  the  word  "social"  is  scattered  through  modern 
pedagogical  and  educational  literature.  Think  of  its  spiritual 
significance,  how  it  has  come  to  mean  so  much  more  than 
sociability,  to  include  efficiency  and  sacrificial  service  and  con- 
sider whether  after  all  educational  ideals  are  not  being  satur- 
ated with  spiritual  concepts. 

Consider  the  incoming  of  the  religious  spirit  into  our  po- 
litical life,  in  insistence  on  moral  ideals,  on  high  standards  of 
conduct,  in  a  developing  sense  of  social  responsibility,  in  the 
turning  of  the  ear  to  the  cry  of  the  man  lower  down.  Notice 
the  use  of  new  terms,  new  to  political  platforms  and  most  re- 
markable because  uttered  often  in  the  glow  of  deep  feeling,  of 
sincere  human  passion;  the  claims  of  social  justice,  the  in- 
sistence on  human  rights  and  the  demand  that  life  shall  mean 
more  than  the  opportunity  to  labor,  it  shall  mean  the  chance  to 
live.  Some  educational  processes  have  been  active  on  very  un- 
promising material  here  and  men  are  beginning  to  take  life 
itself  increasingly  in  terms  of  education  with  a  religious  aim. 
We  tend,  slowly  but  surely  to  think  of  and  to  test  not  only 
homes  and  schools  and  churches,  but  factories  and  stores  and 
city  streets  in  terms  of  their  suitability  to  human  growth,  by 
whether  they  make  the  whole  of  life  move  into  higher  levels, 
whether,  in  the  measure  of  their  powers  they  are  agencies  of 
human  promotion  or  demotion,  whether  they  are  with  or  work- 
ing against  religious  education. 

The  religious  spirit  of  this  larger  program  of  social  educa- 
tion has  not  been  confined  to  settlements  and  groups  of  social 
workers.  It  has  saturated  the  thinking  of  educators;  it  is  in- 
creasingly dominating  the  spirit  of  the  churches.  The  schools 
exist  to  prepare  youth  for  competent  social  living  and  they 
accept  enlarging  responsibility  for  the  social  welfare  of  the 
lives  of  students.  Every  attempt  at  social  development  has  a 
moral  basis  and  a  moral  aim.  The  schools  have  in  some  in- 
stances caught  the  vision  of  society  as  moving  toward  a  de- 
mocracy of  the  spirit.  A  similar  movement  in  the  development 
of  social  responsibility  has  brought  the  churches  and  the 
schools  into  the  same  field  of  endeavor.  It  is  a  sign  of  no 
small  significance — indicating  how  deeply  the  newer  ideals 
of  education  affect  us  all — that  before  we  have  seriously  at- 
tempted the  correlation  of  the  courses  of  instruction  in 
churches  and  schools  we  have  already  in  many  instances  ef- 
fected correlation  in  practical  social  education.  Parent-teacher 


TEN  YEARS  PROGRESS.  35 


organizations  meet  in  churches.  Christian  Association  officers 
direct  the  play  and  recreation  work  in  schools.  But  the  more 
important  co-ordination  is  that  which  comes  unofficially  by 
the  voluntary  exchange  of  school-  and  church-workers  in  the 
enterprises  of  playgrounds,  Boy  Scouts,  moving-picture  regula- 
tion, school  theatricals.  It  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  move- 
ment for  a  school  social-center  to  be  born  in  a  church. 

We  must  take  into  our  view  and  recognize  the  religious 
educational  value  of  every  attempt  to  give  a  child  all  his  world. 
We  would  labor  almost  in  vain  holding  forth  the  flame  of  life 
if  the  eyes  are  dull  with  childhood's  sad  toil,  if  the  life  is  shut 
in  by  squalid  walls;  in  vain  do  we  appeal  to  moral  heroism 
when  all  the  vital  powers  are  sapped  by  malnutrition  or  by 
vice.  When  the  city  opens  parks  and  tears  down  tenements, 
when  the  state  protects  child  life  it  means  that  men  set  human 
values  first,  that  a  public  conscience  demands  the  right  of  lives 
to  develop  and  tfie  foundations  are  made  possible  for  the  house 
not  made  with  hands. 

In  the  light  of  such  progress  who  dare  turn  back  or  even 
doubt  that  the  eternal  purpose  runs  steadily  forward  and  we 
needs  must  follow?  Who  seeing  what  yesterday's  toil  and  sow- 
ing has  brought  forward  can  count  any  cost  too  great  for  to- 
day's service? 


The  Religious  Education  Association 

GENERAL    OFFICERS    FOR   1913 

President— Chas.  Franklin  Thwing,  LL.D.,  President  Western  Reserve  University,  Cleveland.  O. 
First  Vice-President — Henry  S.  Pntchett,  1,1,. D.,  President  Carnegie  Foundation  New  York. 
Treasurer— Charles  Lawrence  Hutchinsou,  M.A.  Vice-Pres.  Corn  Exchange  Nat'l  Hank.  Chicago. 
Chairman  of  the  Executive  Board— Abram  W.  Harris,  Sc.D.,    Pres.  Northwestern  University, 

Chicago,  111. 

Recording  Secretary— Charles  M.  Stuart,  1,1,  D.  Pres.  Garrett  Biblical  Institute,  Evanston,  111. 
General  Secretary— Henry  F.  Cope.  D.D.,  Chicago,  111. 

Office  of  the  Association,  332  So.  Michigan  Ave.,  Chicago,  111. 

VICE   PRESIDENTS 


Rt.  Rev.  C.  P.  Anderson,  S.T.D.,  Bishop  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church,  Chicago,  111. 

P.  P.  Claxton,  Ph.D.,  United  States  Commis- 
sioner of  Education,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Robert  A.  Falconer,  Litt.D.,  President  Uni- 
versity of  Toronto,  Canada. 

Albert  Ross  Hill.  LL.D-,  Pres.  University  of 
Missouri,  Columbia,  Mo. 

Rt.  Rev.  Wm.  Lawrence,  Boston,  Mass. 


Mrs.    Frederic     Schoff,      President    National 

Congress  of  Mothers,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
William    O.    Thompson,    LL.IX,     Pres.    Ohio 

State  University,  Columbus. 
Mr.  S.  P.  Fenn,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 
Wm.    H.   P.    Faunce,  LL  D  ,  President  Brown 

University,  Providence,  R.  I. 
J.   H.  Kirkland.  Sc.  D.,  Chancellor  Vanderbilt 

University,  Nashville. 


BOARD    OF 

Directors   at   Large. 

Pres.  Charles  R.  Van  Hise,  1,1,. D.,  Madison, 
Wis. 

Rev.  Samuel  A.  Eliot,  D.D.,  Boston,  Mass. 
Mr.  F.  W.  Lyman,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 
Supt.  J.  M.  H.  Frederick,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Prof.  John  K.  Mcfadyen,  D.D.  Glasgow,  Scot- 
land. 

Pres.  E.  Y.  Mullins,  D.D.,  Southern  Baptist 

Theological  Seminary,  Louisville,  Ky. 
Pres.  George  B.  Stewart,  LL-D.,  Auburn,  N.  Y. 

Pres.  George  E.  Vincent,  Ph.D.,  University  of 
Minnesota. 

Pres.  Mary  E.  Woolley,  1,1,. D.,  Mt.  Holyoke 
College,  Mass. 

Pres.  William  W.  Foster,  Ph.D.,  Reed  College, 
Portland,  Ore. 

Miss  Caroline  Dow,  International  Y.  W.  C.  A., 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

Rev.  Carey  Bonner,  London,  England. 

Prof.  J.  D.  Fleming,  Lahore,  Punjab,  India. 

Galen  M.  Fisher,  M.D.,  Tokyo,  Japan. 

Rev.  Henry  H.  Lowry,  D.D.,  Education  Asso- 
ciation of  China,  Pekin,  China. 


DIRECTORS 

State    Directors. 

Calif.— Prof.  William  F.  Bade,  Ph.D.,  Berkeley, 

Calif. 

Colo.— Pres.  James  II.  Baker,  Boulder,  Colo. 
Conn.— Prof.  Chas.  F.  Kent,  Ph.D  New  Haven, 

Conn. 
Fla.— Pres  Lincoln  H  Hulley,  Ph.D.,  Stetson 

Univer-ity,  Demand.  Fla. 
Ind.— Pres.  Elijah  A    Hanley,  D.D.,   Franklin 

College,  Franklin. 

Iowa— Pres.  John  H.  T.  Main,  Ph.D.,  Grinnell. 
Kans.  — Pres.  Silas  Eber  Price,  Ph.D.,  Ottawa 

University,  Ottawa. 

Ky.— Prof.  Wm.  J.  McGlothlin,  Louisville,  Ky. 
Maine— Prof.  Alfred  W.  Anthony,  D.  D.,  Lew- 

istou. 

Mich.— Rev.  J.  Percival  Huget,  Detroit,  Mich. 
Minn. — Mr.  W.  S.  Wiley,  Minneapolis  ,  Minn. 
Mo.— Prof.  W.  W.  Charters,  University  of  Mis- 
souri, Columbia. 

N    Y  — Pres.  Elmer  B.  Bryan,  Hamilton,  N.  Y. 
N!    Car.— Prof.    W.    R.    Culloin,  D.U.,    Wake 

Forest. 
Ohio— Mr.    D.  C.  Mathews,  Western  Reserve, 

Cleveland,  Ohio. 
Out.,    Can.— Rev.    R.    Douglas    Fraser,    D.D., 

Toronto. 

R.  I.— Rev.  Augustus  M.  Lord,  Providence. 
S.    Car.— Pres.     Henry    N.    Snyder,     Litt.D., 

Spartanburg. 
Tenn.— Pres.  Bruce  R.  Payne,  Peabody  College, 

Nashville.  Tenn. 
Tex.— Prof.   W.   S.   Sutton,    State    University, 

Austin. 

Va.— Prof.  W.  M.  Forrest,  Charlottesville. 
Wis.— Pres.  Edward  D.  Eaton,  Ph.D.,   Beloit. 


THE  PUBLICATIONS  OF 

jEihtnttum  Aaaoriatton 


A-THE  VOLUMES 

Five  Large  Volumes,  containing  authoritative,  modern,  scientific 
treatment  of  the  most  important  problems  of  the  home,  Sunday  school, 
public  school,  college,  university,  church,  library  and  other  educa- 
tional agencies,  and  including  the  papers  of  the  conventions  of  the 
association  from  1903  to  1908. 

1— THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

422  pages;  published  at  $2.50,  now  50  cents;  postpaid  65  cents. 

II— THE  BIBLE  IN  PRACTICAL  LIFE 

640  pages,  net,  $2.50,   (prepaid  $2.65). 

Ill— THE  AIMS  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

525  pages,  published  at  $2.50;  now,  net,  $1.00,  (prepaid  $1.11). 

IV— THE  MATERIAL  OF   RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

350  pages,  published  at  $2.00;  now,  net,  $0.50,  (prepaid  $0.65). 

V-EDUCATION  AND  NATIONAL  CHARACTER 

319  pages,  published  at  $2.00;  now,  net,  $0.50,  (prepaid  $0.65). 


TO  NEW  MEMBERS 

NOTE. — As  a  special  endeavor  to  acquaint  new  members  with  the 
history  of  the  organization,  Vol.  I  above,  is  offered  free  of  charge,  for 
a  limited  period,  to  all  persons  enrolling  and  pain'ng  the  membership 
fee  of  $3.00. 

New  members  may  obtain  also  Volumes  III,  IV  and  V,  above  de- 
scribed, for  $1.50  (express  prepaid  $1.85)  in  addition  to  the  member- 
ship fee  of  $3.00. 

These  special  prices  apply  only  when  ordered  directly  of  the 
Association. 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  ASSOCIATION, 

332   S.  Michigan  Avenue, 

Chicago,  111. 

37 


38 RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 

B-THE  MAGAZINE  "RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION" 

Regular  subscription,  per  annum,  $3.00. 

Averages  120  pages  per  issue.  Contains  all  Convention  Reports  and 
many  other  valuable  papers. 

RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  contains  articles  by  experts  in  religious  and 
moral  education;  news;  accounts  of  methods  and  materials  available 
for  schools,  classes,  etc.  It  is  the  medium  of  exchange  and  informa- 
tion for  all  who  are  interested  in  moral  and  religious  education. 

Membership — $3.00  annually — entitles  one  to  receive  this  Magazine. 
NOTE. — Membership   entitles   to  all  current  publications  free. 
The  volumes  of  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  begin  with  the  April  issues. 

BACK  NUMBERS  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 
Vol.  I,  April,  1906-February,  1907,  (out  of  print).     Sets  cost  $5.00. 
Vol.  II,  April,  1907-February,  1908,  (out  of  print).    Sets  cost  $4.00. 
Vol.  Ill,  April,  1908-February,  1909,  (out  of  print).    Sets  cost  $4.50. 

The  above  volumes  do  not  contain  Convention  Reports.  The  follow- 
ing volumes  contain  all  the  reports,  including  the  convention  papers. 

Vol.  IV,  April,  1909-February,  1910,  (out  of  print).    Sets  cost  $6.00. 
Vol.  V,  April,  1910-February,  1911,  (750  pp.),  $5.00. 
Vol.  VI,  April,  1911-February,  1912,   (G28  pp.),  $5.00. 

Vol.  VII,  April,  1912-February,  1013,  (760  pp.),  $3.50.  Price  sub- 
ject to  advance. 


C-FREE  PAMPHLETS  AND  REPORTS 

Subject — Index  to  the  publications  of  the  Association. 

Annual  Survey  of  Progress,  James  H.  Kirkland. 

Progress  in  Religious  Education  in  the  Home,  Clyde  W.  Votaw.  Free. 

A  list  of  Graded  Text  Books  for  Use  in  the  Sunday  School. 

Ten  Years  Progress  in  Religious  Education,  Henry  F.  Cope. 

Bibliography  on  "The  Bible  and  Public  Education." 

Religion  as  a  Liberal  Culture  Subject,  W.  S.  Athearn. 

Reports  of  Commissions  on  Teacher  Training. 

A  Library  of  Religious  Education. 

Circulars  of  Information. 

Annual  Reports  of  Activities. 

RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  ASSOCIATION, 

332   S.   Michigan   Avenue, 

Chicaao,  111. 


You  are  Invited  to  Become  a  Member 

Membership  in  the  Religious  Education 
Association  will 

1.  Entitle  you  to  receive,  without  fur- 
ther charge,  the  valuable  magazine,  RELIG- 
IOUS EDUCATION,  issued  bi-monthly.     This 
contains   the   addresses   delivered   at   the 
annual  convention  and  many  other  arti- 
cles on  methods  and  progress  in  religious 
education. 

2.  Entitle  you  to  use  the  Permanent 
Exhibit,  consult  the  officers  and  co-operate 
with   workers   through   the   Departments 
and  the  Executive  Office. 

3.  Entitle  you  to  a  part  in  the  Annual 
Conventions  and  the  local  Conferences. 

4.  Bring  you  into  the  fellowship  of  the 
Association's  representative  and  inspiring 
membership    and    to    enrollment    in    the 
official  R.  E.  A.  Directory. 

5.  Give  you  a  part  in  this  remarkable 
modern  movement  for  religious  and  moral 
education  and  in  the  privileges  and  bene- 
fits of  this  form  of  service. 

THESE  ARE  ONLY  SOME  OF  THE 
RETURNS. 

The  investment  is  but  $3.00  per  annum. 

Pastors,  teachers,  parents  and  all  other 
religious  workers  who  would  do  their  best, 
cannot  afford  not  to  join  The  Religious 
Education  Association. 

An  application  blank  is  on  the  reverse 
side  of  this  sheet. 

Send  your  application  and  make  remit- 
tance payable  to 

The  Religious  Education  Association 

332  S.     Michigan  Avenue 

CHICAGO 


39 


THE  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION  ASSOCIATION 

332  S.  Michigan  Avenue 

Chicago 

Application  for  Membership 

I  hereby  present  my  name    for   membership   in   the    Religious 
Education  Association,  desiring  to  be  enrolled  as: 

A.  Active  Member  (Annual  fee  $3.00). 

C.  Contributing  Member  (Annual  fee  $5.00) 

S.  Sustaining  Member  (Annual  fee  $10.00) 

_L.  Life  Member  (by  payment  of  $100.00  at  one  time) 


(Full  name,  titles  and  degrees) 


(Position  or  occupation) 


(Name  of  Church  or  similar  connection) 


(Street  Address) 


(City  or  State) 
Date 

Please  fill  in  the  above  blank  lines  exactly  as  you  wish  your  name  to  appear  in 
the  official  list  of  members  of  the  Association. 

Make  all  Remittances  payable  to  THE  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  ASSOCIATION. 

When  remitting  by  local  check  please  include  10  cents  for  exchange. 

N.  B.— If  you  desire  the  four  volumes  on  Religious  Education,  aggregating  over 
1600  pages,  onke  your  total  remittance  $4.85.  (express  prepaid) 


THE    RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION    ASSOCIATION 

332  So.  Michigan  Ave.,  Chicago,  111. 

Subscription  to  the  Sustaining  Fund 

Towards  a  Sustaining  Fund  of  Five  Thousand   Dollars  ($5,000) 
annually  for  The  Religious  Education  Association,  in  its  work  of  pro- 
moting Religious  and  Moral  Education,  through  all  existing  agencies, 
I  hereby  subscribe  annually  for  Five*  years  the  sum  of 
Ten  Dollars  Twenty-Five  Dollars  Fifty  Dollars 

One  Hundred  Dollars  Two  Hundred  and  Fifty  Dollars 

Dollars 


I  will  pay  this  amount  annually  on  (date). 
Full  Name 


Street  Address. 


Date          City  and  State 


*  Chanfte,  if  mo  desired,  to  any  other  number  of  year*. 

Checks  should  be  made  payable  to  The  Religious  Education  Association. 
Gifts  of  $5.00  and  upward  entitle  to  all  membership  privileges 


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This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 

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